Italians protest against PM plans to reform hiring-and-firing rules

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hundreds of people protested against Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's plans to reform hiring-and-firing rules outside the congress center where European leaders were due to meet on Wednesday, Oct 8, for a conference on jobs, Reuters reported.

The meeting in Milan coincides with a confidence vote in parliament to push through legislation that will enable the government to alter parts of the labor code including job protection measures that are fiercely defended by unions.

Some isolated scuffles broke out when masked protesters threw flares at police in riot gear but there were no reports of serious violence, according to Reuters.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande were due in Milan along with leaders from other European Union countries for a meeting billed as a "high level conference" on jobs and growth.

No concrete measures are expected from the meeting, which is due to last no more than three hours and which comes ahead of a full European Union summit at the end of the month.

But Renzi wants to use it as a platform to focus on the unemployment crisis in southern European countries like Italy, where the youth jobless rate has topped 44 percent and where a generation of young people risk being shut out of the labor market.