Country report Gender equality How are EU rules transposed into national law? Italy

1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 5 1.1 Basic structure of the national legal system............................................5 1.2 List of main legislation transposing and implementing the directives ..........6 1.3 Sources of law ...................................................................................7 2 General legal framework ............................................................................ 9 2.1 Constitution ....................................................................................... 9 2.2 Equal treatment legislation ..................................................................9 3 Implementation of central concepts.........................................................11 3.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 11 3.2 Sex/gender/transgender .................................................................... 13 3.3 Direct sex discrimination ................................................................... 13 3.4 Indirect sex discrimination ................................................................. 15 3.5 Multiple discrimination and intersectional discrimination ......................... 16 3.6 Positive action.................................................................................. 18 3.7 Harassment and sexual harassment .................................................... 21 3.8 Instruction to discriminate ................................................................. 23 3.9 Other forms of discrimination ............................................................. 23 3.10 Evaluation of implementation ............................................................. 25 3.11 Remaining issues.............................................................................. 26 4 Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast Directive 2006/54) ................................................................................................................. 27 4.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 27 4.2 Equal pay ........................................................................................ 30 4.3 Access to work, working conditions and dismissal..................................34 4.4 Evaluation of implementation ............................................................. 39 4.5 Remaining issues.............................................................................. 40 5 Pregnancy, maternity, and leave related to work-life balance for workers (Directive 92/85, relevant provisions of Directives 2006/54, 2010/18 and 2019/1158) ............................................................................................. 43 5.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 43 5.2 Pregnancy and maternity protection .................................................... 46 5.3 Maternity leave ................................................................................ 49 5.4 Adoption leave ................................................................................. 54 5.5 Parental leave .................................................................................. 54 5.6 Paternity leave ................................................................................. 58 5.7 Time off for force majeure ................................................................. 60 5.8 Care leave ....................................................................................... 60 5.9 Leave in relation to surrogacy ............................................................ 62 5.10 Flexible working time arrangements .................................................... 62 5.11 Evaluation of implementation ............................................................. 64 5.12 Remaining issues.............................................................................. 66 6 Occupational social security schemes (Chapter 2 of Directive 2006/54)..69 6.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 69 6.2 Direct and indirect discrimination ........................................................ 70 6.3 Personal scope ................................................................................. 70 6.4 Material scope.................................................................................. 70 6.5 Exclusions ....................................................................................... 70 6.6 Laws and case law falling under the examples of sex discrimination mentioned in Article 9 of Directive 2006/54..........................................70 6.7 Actuarial factors ............................................................................... 71 6.8 Difficulties ....................................................................................... 71 6.9 Evaluation of implementation ............................................................. 72 6.10 Remaining issues.............................................................................. 72 7 Statutory schemes of social security (Directive 79/7) ............................. 73 3 Country report - gender equality – Italy - 2022 7.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 73 7.2 Implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security ................................................................... 75 7.3 Personal scope ................................................................................. 77 7.4 Material scope.................................................................................. 77 7.5 Exclusions ....................................................................................... 78 7.6 Actuarial factors ............................................................................... 78 7.7 Difficulties ....................................................................................... 78 7.8 Evaluation of implementation ............................................................. 78 7.9 Remaining issues.............................................................................. 79 8 Self-employed workers (Directive 2010/41/EU and some relevant provisions of the Recast Directive)...........................................................80 8.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 80 8.2 Implementation of Directive 2010/41/EU ............................................. 81 8.3 Personal scope ................................................................................. 82 8.4 Material scope.................................................................................. 82 8.5 Positive action.................................................................................. 83 8.6 Social protection .............................................................................. 83 8.7 Maternity benefits............................................................................. 84 8.8 Occupational social security ............................................................... 85 8.9 Prohibition of discrimination ............................................................... 86 8.10 Evaluation of implementation ............................................................. 86 8.11 Remaining issues.............................................................................. 86 9 Goods and services (Directive 2004/113)................................................88 9.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 88 9.2 Prohibition of direct and indirect discrimination ..................................... 88 9.3 Material scope.................................................................................. 88 9.4 Exceptions....................................................................................... 89 9.5 Justification of differences in treatment................................................ 89 9.6 Actuarial factors ............................................................................... 89 9.7 Interpretation of exception contained in Article 5(2) of Directive 2004/11389 9.8 Positive action measures (Article 6 of Directive 2004/113)...................... 89 9.9 Specific problems related to pregnancy, maternity or parenthood ............ 89 9.10 Evaluation of implementation ............................................................. 90 9.11 Remaining issues.............................................................................. 90 10 Violence against women and domestic violence in relation to the Istanbul Convention ............................................................................................... 91 10.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 91 10.2 Ratification of the Istanbul Convention ................................................ 94 11 Compliance and enforcement aspects (horizontal provisions of all directives) ................................................................................................ 96 11.1 General (legal) context...................................................................... 96 11.2 Victimisation .................................................................................... 96 11.3 Access to courts ............................................................................... 96 11.4 Horizontal effect of the applicable law.................................................. 97 11.5 Burden of proof ................................................................................ 98 11.6 Remedies and sanctions .................................................................... 98 11.7 Equality body ................................................................................... 99 11.8 Social partners............................................................................... 100 11.9 Other relevant bodies...................................................................... 100 11.10 Evaluation of implementation ........................................................... 100 11.11 Remaining issues............................................................................ 101 12 Overall assessment