Italy

As regards labour law, several legislative interventions in the last twenty years have created, on the whole, a good level of implementation of EU directives. Sometimes domestic legislation has gone further than EU law. This is the case with regulations on maternity and paternity protection and leave, positive action, gender data on personnel in businesses employing more than 100 workers, justification clauses for indirect discrimination, and the promotion of female self-employment. The main remarkable gap that may be detected is found in the functions of bodies entrusted with the promotion of respect for the principle of equal treatment, the conformity of which relies on the concept of independence adopted at EU level. More in general, the analysis of the recent national legislation implementing EU law shows a tendency to merely transpose it by verbatim repetition of the EU Directive, which does not ensure the necessary coordination with other provisions. As regards social security legislation, despite the fact that the directives have never been specifically implemented, domestic legislation is, on the whole, relatively well in line with EU law.