22 ITALY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



To the indemnity fixed for the case of a death or of permanent total 

 disability there is added one tenth of its amount for a wife and for every 

 child under fifteen, up to 50 per cent of its amount. 



Indemnities are paid as capital, but are paid to the Cassa Nazionale 

 di Previdenza to be converted into a life annuity if they bring such an one 

 up to the sum of 300 liras a year or more. 



The introduction of fixed indemnities overcomes the difficulty due to 

 the fact that true and rightful wages are not always paid in the industries 

 of agriculture and forestry. Fixed indemnities presume uniform average 

 wages throughout the kingdom, and the presumption is admissible because 

 agricultural wages in the various districts do not show the same disparity' 

 as the wages of the manufactury industry. The table we have reproduced 

 shows that indemnities have been fixed very appropriately, the different 

 elements being taken into account. Besides the distinction for sex the 

 distinction for the ages at which accidents occur is important. Above all 

 the fact should be noticed that the families of victims do not suffer, indemni- 

 tites being increased when the economic consequences of accidents fall on 

 laburers having young children. 



The expenses of insurance are paid on a system we will presently ex- 

 plain, and are borne entirely by the owner, lessee or usufructory of the 

 land. 



When land is held on lease, or on a profit sharing or metayage system, 

 the expenses fall on the owner, lessee or usufructory, if the occupier, metayer 

 or cultivator habitually cultivates the farm by his own manual labour. 

 Otherwise the owner, lessee or usufructory may reqiiire from the occupier 

 the whole amount of the insurance contribution, and from the metayer or 

 cultivator rendering partial profits a quota of such contribution propor- 

 tionate to the share of the profits of the farm assigned by their contract to 

 this metayer or cultivator. Anyone who by direct or indirect retention 

 of wages causes a labourer to sustain the expenses of insurance is punished 

 by a fine up to the limit of 4000 liras. 



The management of insurance against the accidents of agricultural 

 labour is temporarily entrusted, until new provision shall be made, to the 

 Cassa Nazionale di Assicurazione per gli Infortuni degli Operai sul Lavoro 

 (National Fund of Insurance for the Accidents of Workpeople during I^a- 

 bour) (i). Mutual societies, the funds of consortia and other bodies, which 

 before 26 March 1917 exclusively or mainly insured against the accidents 

 of agriculture, can be recognized by royal decree and allowed to continue 



(i) This was founded by the law of 8 Jtily 1883, no. 1473, and is a public institution, the 

 official organization for insurance against the accidents of labour, placed beneath the superin- 

 tendence of the Mnistn,' of Industry, Commerce and Labour. It is authorized to undertake 

 various kinds of business — collective insurance on the terras of the law of 31 January 1904, 

 no. 51 ; insurance against civil liability to workmen ; voluntary insurance of industrial workers ; 

 reinsurance of mutual insurance societies, etc. It is the onlj^ institution in Italy which is ena- 

 bled by a vast ready-made organization, a numerous administrative and technical staff which 

 has experience in this matter, and its own wide experience of the accidents of agriculture, to 



