Towards New Criminal Relevance of the Exploitation of Labour. Symbolism and Effectiveness of the Punishment System

The fresh upsurge, in Italy, in cases of so-called "caporalato", i.e. the illegal hiring of farm labourers for very low wages through an agent, which is certainly connected with the flows of illegal immigrants, who provide new and rather vulnerable victims of exploitation, has not been adequately fought by the applicable criminal legislation. Criminally prosecutable facts that amount to the so-called "caporalato", unless classified as "common" types of offences (such as private violence or extortion), fall either under the scarcely effective types of offences provided for by art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 276 dated 10th September 2003, or under the offence known as reduction to, or holding in, slavery, which is normally inflated both from a structural point of view and with regard to the related probative commitment. The high value of the goods at stake (freedom, selfdetermination, and personal dignity) certainly justifies the adoption of appropriate criminal measures, which must be inserted within the context of an integrated system of protection of the rights of workers and is an adequate and shared ground for the proposal, variously put forward, to introduce an ad hoc type of offence with which offenders may be charged. The examined bills, leaving aside the lack of homogeneity in terms of contents, are characterised by a common feature, i.e. a complex system of punishments, which combines and integrates different measures, and seems to be properly "targeted" to combat this specific offence.

Keywords: Criminal Law, Exploitation of Workers

Stefano Fiore, Verso una nuova rilevanza penale dello sfruttamento di manodopera. Simbolismo ed effettività della risposta punitiva in "AGRICOLTURA ISTITUZIONI MERCATI " 2/2011, pp 83-98, DOI: 10.3280/AIM2011-002006