Italy Post Office May Depend on Nepotism to Cut Costs

This made me blink. I quote:

Italy’s postal service, the country’s biggest employer, has proposed an innovative way to cut costs and usher out older workers: nepotism. Under a draft plan detailed to unions, postal workers at 140 branches who agree to early retirement can cede permanent job contracts to their children. The “heir” must be at least 30 years old with a high school diploma. Talks on the policy are at an “advanced stage,” and it could be implemented by early October, said Walter de Candiziis, head of Failp-Cisal, the union that first suggested the plan in 1997.

Under the new proposal, postal workers can deliver job security to their kids, at a time when most Italian companies are shying away from offering such jobs for life. For employers, the permanent contracts are difficult to break when staff cuts are needed and they require more generous social-security contributions that increase as the worker ages.

Presumably the idea of just cutting the jobs would not apply, eh?

This is also interesting and I didn't know this.

Nepotism has deep roots in Italy. The word derives from the Latin for nephew and has its origins in the practice of popes elevating their nephews to the position of cardinal to create papal dynasties.