Per la libertà di movimento, per i diritti di cittadinanza

Updates on flows decree

There are no particular pieces of news on flows decree.
Local Labour Departments are managing and origanizing things by themselves since Minister of labour hasn’t so far given precise instructions on how to collect application forms and on how to evaluate forms.
Local Labour Departments are applying and interpreting the decree in different ways and this fact is extremely worrying.
Some offices allowed to send application forms via mail, the arrival date is calculated on basis of the exact hour printed on the postal receipt. Some other departments decided to hand out reservation cards. These cards will allow to a more ordered collection of application forms. Other departments have at the moment suspended the collection of all application forms (and this is unlawful) as it happens in Friuli Venezia Giulia, whose autonomy is used as an excuse. The fact is that in this region people have still no idea of how to present flows decree application forms. The so called regional autonomy doesn’t anyway work on the management of flows decrees. In the meanwhile citizens are sending application forms via mail.

Local Labour Departments are acting differently also in the evaluation of prescribed requisites. For istance Vicenza department asks for the idoneous lodgings certificate when applying for flows decree while the most of departments accept the sole individual declaration given in under the employer’s own responsabilities. Having all instructions needed is extremely important, in fact it allows to have all the required documents when applying for regularisation.
The lack of information and of instructions, which the minister should publish, helped this fact: each Labour Department applies the decree in its own way and differences are making things diffucult for migrant citizens. Of coarse “well informed” people could therefore arrive first.
This chaotic situation will lead to appeals, complaints, slowness in the evaluation of forms and in proceedings.
At the moment regional quotas have not been subdivided among cities and counties.

We shall now refer to some cases we were referred of in order to deepen this issue.

Seasonal employment
Can a person holding seasonal employmet temporary residence papers turn them into stable ones in case he/she finds a new job while papers are valid?

We shall study this matter while commentino actual flows decree since many will apply for seasonal employment quotas, there are in fact more seasonal employment quotas available and of coarse finding such a temporary job seems to be easier.

Migrant workers whose papers are seasonal employment ones and are still valid can apply for the conversion of papers while staying in Italy. Quotas must be available.
When aiming to convert residence papers, the authorization to open-end employment application form (it doesn’t matter who the employer is) must be given in before quotas are over.

We anyway suggest that the application form is handed in even if quotas seem to be over. It might in fact happen that some forms are rejected and quotas become available.
Workers could also apply both for seasonal employment and for subordinated not determined in time employment. One employer could give one application form in and another the other.
The fact that the same person applied for two different quotas DOES NOT imply that the forms are cancelled. Once one of the two applications is positively considered the worker can renounce the other.

We also need to precise one issue. It often happens that police headquarters deny residence papers renewal in case of seasonal employment residence papers.
This happens because seasonal employment residence papers are not renewable.
Workers often are not aware of this fact and when the permit expires there’s no chance of renewing it. Seasonal employment papers usually last nine months.
This situation is different from the one described above and concerning the chance of converting residence papers.

This happens because workers arriving in Italy, on basis of the authorization the employers obtain from Labour Departments, too often do not know that the permit they hold is limited to seasonal employment.
Workers starts activities that are maybe not “seasonal ones” and noone explains them that their residence papers are deeply linked to the job they are doing. On the other hand, police headquarters print residence papers which only say that they are seasonal employment residence papers therefore worker read on the permit that it is a subordinated work residence papers and nothing more is printed on them.
Some residence papers printed by police headquarters only hold a note which needs a great juridical knowledge to be understood.
For istance papers show a brief note printed in the permit paragraph where Italian references are written and the note usually refers to Immigration consolidated act art. 24. This article rules over the entry and the stay in case of seasonal emplyment, this same article explains that this sort of permits cannot be renewed and when they expire the holder must return to his/her country of origin unless subordinated work quotas are available on basis of flows decree.
Workers and employers do not understand that referring to art. 24 means that residence papers cannot be renewed.

Foreign firms employees
Similar to the quoted above situation occurs in case of workers entering Italy on basis of an authorization released to the foreign firm which employs them, those workers are paid by the foreign firm and they are employed in activities longed for contracts signed between the foreign firm and Italian customers.
Even in these cases workers are often unaware of the fact that their residence permit is temporary and not renewable. In other words they do not know – and nobody tells them – that their permit can be only used to work for the building firm which signed a contract with Italian customers. The contracts we are referring to sometimes hide an intermediation of labour which is not completely regular and of which we’ve often talked about.
Workers are usually released a normal residence permit which shows the generic note subordinated work. This note is usually writtent in the Italian references.
The note refers to Immigration consolidated act art. 27 all operators know that this means that the permit is limited in time but others do not understand what the article mentioned refers to.
It sometimes happens that there’s no note and misunderstandings do occur.
Anyway in both quoted cases (seasonal and foreign firms workers employment) the employer should at least be aware of the fact that residence papers are limited in time and can be only temporary used.
Workers may in the meanwhile lose their job and they will obviously look for a new one while their residence papers are still valid. New employers should be very well informed, they should know that this sort of papers cannot be renewed nor they allow to new employments. Many misunderstandings of coarse occured, sometimes even operators find it difficult to read residence papers since note printed on them are extremely generic.

Example – I happened to study the case of a worker who was authorized to entry Italy, he was working in a circus and he arrived on basis of Immigration consolidated act art. 27. This person was given a permit which didn’t mention of the limits of the same permit.
This person, who subsequently moved to another city, managed to have his permit renewed for six years. When he asked to stable open-end residence papers evaluation made it clear that his original permit was a limited one both in time and in renewal chances. This fact makes it clear that also police headquarters can misunderstand residence papers.

These few words to have people understand, before it’s too late, what sort of permit they are to be released. In fact while the permit is valid the worker may apply for the conversion while quotas are available.

These topics are difficult and operators only can make them clear. Interested people should verify circumstances and their residence papers conditions before the expiry date and before the situation becomes unsolvable.