Question – A nun that holds papers issued on basis of religious matters arrived to our parish near Como. She referred to local police to have papers issued; hearing is to be within a few months. Our parish priest is willing to employ the nun, she would teach in the parish nursery school.
Are her actual residence papers consistent with labour?
Can she be regularly employed?
Answer – We chose to answer to this letter because the question is rather unusual. Religious personnel usually work without being regularly employed. In order words, these people are not often granted a paycheque or contributions. This happens because religious’ work, within congregations or charitable institutions, is not usually esteemed as subordinated labour, though it often looks like subordinated labour. We were of course struck that this parish wishes to regularly employ the mentioned above nun.
Juridically speaking religious are not considered workers, but the truth is that in private schools, etc., many foreign religious (coming form the Philippines, India, Peru) are employed. They work as teachers, counsellors, educators, nurses, janitors, caretakers: these activities do have correspondences in the “real” labour market and they have contracts, contributions and paycheques.
Cassation Court does not consider religious working in their congregations as workers/employees but in case a religious is employed in structures that are different from his/her own we could say that this is a non-properly fit worker. In spite of this, no rules nor law exists on the matter.
Como’s parish worries are almost excessive, it in fact wishes to do something Church rarely (never) does. The parish indentations may also raise some disappointment within Church hierarchies: if the good habit of regularly employing religious workers takes place, economies within church would abruptly change their course.
Anyway law does not forbid that within a specific congregation a labour contract is signed between the congregation and one of its members. The nun we are referring to is to be working in a nursery school and she is a non-EU citizen. Immigration consolidated act does not provide for the conversion of religious visas into labour residence papers, therefore Prefectures’ front offices or police headquarters would deny the conversion because it is not provided for by law.
Flows decree quotas may of course be applied to. This nun though is here on basis of religious matters and she has the right of staying in Italy. Once quotas are published, application will be possible but we do not know whether she will need to go back to her home country to have an entry visa issued or not. We are afraid that she will need to.