On November 28, the tenth lecture of "2022 Global Flexible Employment Era and Expanding Social Protection Serial Lectures" was held online. It was organized by the the CULR and co-organized by the Labor Relations Branch of the Chinese Association of Human Resource Development. William Chiaromonte, Associate Professor of labor law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Florence, was invited as the lecturer to make a presentation titled Status Quo of Social Security System in Italy, which was attended online by over 170 scholars, experts, teachers and students inside and outside the the CULR.

In the lecture, Associate Professor William Chiaromonte followed the main line of the history of Italy's social security system and explained the social insurance pattern represented by the Bismarck model and the social security pattern represented by the Beveridge model. He noted that the social insurance model is the result of the social and economic transformations brought by the industrial revolutions, and benefits the laborers. After employers pay social insurance premiums, social insurance institutions provide welfare to laborers for exposure to possible risks. As an extension of the social insurance model, the social security model appeared on the basis of the British legislative reform and targeted at all citizens. Citizens pay taxes for the coverage of social security. It is a universal and fair way for all citizens to enjoy equal social security at the lowest threshold. He gave a detailed interpretation of the provisions in the Italian Constitution concerning social security pattern and then introduced the basic characteristics of the country's existing social security and welfare legislation. In his view, social security and social relief are the two pillars of Italy's social security system. Specifically, the indemnitees of social security are laborers of all types, and dependent labor relations are the key to obtaining social security welfare. Social security is funded by taxes paid by employers and employees, but in the periods of global pandemic and economic crisis, the national fiscal budget is another important funding source of social security. Comparatively, the target of social relief is the citizens in need of indemnity, with priority given to the poverty-stricken people or those with economic needs. Social relief is funded by taxes. Relief welfare and relief services are diversified and grant variant degrees of relief payment in accordance with the specific difficulties of relief targets. He pointed out that to further narrow the wealth gap and achieve common prosperity, the Italian government issued the "basic income card" in 2019. As a relief measure to eliminate poverty, this active labor policy guarantees the minimum social security for qualified families and bolsters the reemployment of laid-off workers.

In the consultation session, Professor Xiao Zhu, Executive Dean of the Law School of the CULR commented that the wonderful presentation of Associate Professor William Chiaromonte gave a basic picture of Italy's social security system. The CULR's Law School and the Faculty of Law of the University of Florence signed a cooperation agreement in 2021, establishing a preliminary cooperative framework for exchanges of teachers, students, and academic views between the two universities. She looked forward to further intercollegiate exchanges and cooperation. Professor Xiao Zhu then introduced the big picture of China's social security and relevant issues. She said that the Chinese path to modernization proposed in the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC is to achieve common prosperity for all, and common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The most important task of China's social security system is to give peace and comfort to the people, which underlined putting the people in the first place and achieving common prosperity, and sets improving the people's well-being and promoting social equity as the inspiration and cornerstone of China's social security undertakings, allowing more benefits from the reform and development to be more equally shared by all people. She briefed the present status of China's social security system and mentioned some existing issues, e.g. the effect of population aging on the sustainability of pension insurance, and a low proportion of pension insurance for flexible employees. She believed that Italy's new social relief measure in response to economic regression and the global pandemic is worthy of reference to China, and reciprocally China's recent pilot program of occupational injury security for employees of new business forms also has reference value for Italy.

In the interaction session, the attendants had in-depth discussions with Associate Professor William Chiaromonte on topics such as how Italian labor law distinguishes between workers of subordinate relations and self-employed workers, sources of social security expenses of self-employed workers, age restrictions of Italian taxpayers, and differences in pensions for employees of different jobs.

This lecture marked a perfect conclusion of the CULR's "2022 Global Flexible Employment Era and Expanding Social Protection Serial Lectures". This year, our university has invited 11 scholars and experts from different countries and regions to present 10 lectures, and 9 Chinese experts for evaluation of lectures. More than 1,800 people attended the lectures and discussions. The serial lectures have shared the forms of flexible employment worldwide and the challenges, opportunities, and trends of expanding social protection from an academic perspective. While spreading China's experience in labor security and trade union work, the program also gained insights into advanced systems and practices outside the Chinese mainland, which has been warmly welcomed and broadly appreciated by universities, academic institutions, scholars and experts, and teachers and students at home and abroad, and significantly improved the influence and reputation of the CULR's international academic exchange.

(International Office of Cooperation and Exchange)

The Lecturer's Profile:

William Chiaromonte is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Florence. In 2004, he received a Master's degree in European Labor Studies from the University of Florence and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2009, he received a PhD in European Social Law from the University of Macerada. He serves as the Editor-in-chief of the academic journal Reports on Labor Law and Industrial Relations Law and a member of the editorial committee of Social Security Law and Law, Immigration and Citizenship, as well as the coordinator for several national and European research work groups.

He has many works in the fields of labor law and social security law and has won a number of honors and awards. His thesis on labor and social rights of migrant workers won the Marco Biagi Youth Research Award from the Marco Biagi Foundation (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia University), and his book Governance of Economic Migrants won a special award from the Italian Academy of Labor Law and Social Security