ITALY – New retirement saving legislation that had been expected by the first half of May has failed to materialise.

Welfare under-secretary Alberto Brambilla said on May 3 that the cabinet was expected to have the new regulations ready by May 12 and to end the whole process, which would involve consultation with the social partners, by May 15.

A spokeswoman for the employers’ association Confindustria, which is part of a delegation of social partners involved in negotiations with the government, said no progress had been made in the last two weeks. And officials at trade unions Uil and Cisl also said they had received no communication of further progress.

Brambilla’s office declined to comment as neither the under-secretary nor his personal secretary, Vincenzo de Velli, were available. The welfare ministry’s press office also declined to comment.

At stake are the implementation decrees of the pension reform, which was passed last July. The reform settled that severance pay, or Tfr, should be paid into pension funds unless blocked by the worker.

The reforms gives employees six months to make up their minds. The reflection period should have started in July.

In March the ministry said it would be delayed to September, but last week welfare ministry Roberto Maroni said July could still be an option.

The new regulation to which Brambilla referred deals with creating adequate infrastructure for the new investments and clarifying which public agency is to oversee transparency.

The reform would also see pension regulator Covip become sole regulator – although this potentially clashes with a bill currently at the senate to appoint market regulator Consob to oversee the insurance market. A spokesman for the senate told IPE today that the senate was likely to consider the bill for a long time yet.

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