Caporalato. Ten years after Law 199/2016
PRESS RELEASE
Tighter controls, yet irregularities on the rise.
Cumulative tax and contribution losses for 2015-2023 range between 6.3 and 9.4 billion euros
Ten years after Law 199/2016 came into force, Eurispes presents the study “Caporalato. Ten years after Law 199/2016: analysis, critique and prospects”. The analysis of the available data on the phenomenon shows a law that is effective in terms of enforcement, but not decisive: undeclared work remains a structural feature of the primary sector.
As regards controls and irregularities, between 2015 and 2025 the number of inspectors rose from 3,221 to 4,366 (+35%), although in 2025 it fell compared with the 4,585 recorded in 2024. Cases per inspector dropped from 2.4 to 1.6. The rate of irregular cases rose from 54.2% to 64.8%, peaking at 68.4% in 2024. Workers affected by ascertained violations increased from 6,153 to 8,851. Health and safety violations rose from 592 to 7,528.
Irregularities linked to caporalato (illegal gangmastering) and unlawful labour intermediation peaked in 2023 (2,288, of which 2,123 for caporalato) and fell to 551 in 2025, below 2015-2016 levels. This figure should be interpreted with caution, as intermediaries often reorganise into forms that are harder to detect, such as “landless cooperatives”.
As for the weight of the underground economy, in 2023 agricultural value added exceeded 39.8 billion euros. The share generated by the underground economy in the sector stood at 3% (3.4% in 2019), equal to over 1.2 billion euros. According to Istat data, irregular labour units numbered 146,500, 34.3% of the total: the incidence fell from a peak of 37.1% (2018) to a low of 32.1% (2022), before rising again.
Also in 2023, an irregular farm labourer earned on average 8.10 euros per hour, compared with 11.30 euros for a regular worker. The gap is 28%, down from 40% in 2018 and lower than the 48% recorded for the economy as a whole. Even the wages of regular workers remain 37% below the national average (17.80 euros) and grew less between 2021 and 2023: +3.7% against +4.1%.
All this also comes at a cost to the public purse. Between 2015 and 2023, lost revenue from personal income tax (Irpef), local surcharges and social security contributions ranges between 6.3 billion euros (estimate based on the actual wages of irregular workers) and 9.4 billion euros (full regularisation scenario). For 2023 alone, the estimate ranges from 810 million to 1.1 billion euros.
It should also be noted that, according to the ILO, in 2024 there were 78 fatal accidents in agriculture (-17% compared with 2014) and over 376,000 working days lost (-40%). It must nonetheless be stressed that official data clearly underestimate the phenomenon, since incidents are concealed.
Taking a look at the areas where the phenomenon is most deeply rooted, in Latina 95% of agricultural workers have a fixed-term contract; 6,601 employees (46%) receive less than the amount set by their contract. The pay of exploited farm labourers has risen from around 4 euros per hour in 2021 to around 5 in 2026, compared with around 9 under the contract. In Emilia-Romagna, estimates suggest that at least 30% of agricultural work is undeclared; in the Modena area, outsourcing allows savings of 40-50% on labour costs. In Lombardy, in 2025, the irregularity rate of completed agricultural inspections was 65.4% (291 out of 445), rising to 68.6% in Mantua (59 out of 86).
Eurispes identifies five priorities or possible areas of action to provide an even more structured response to the phenomenon of caporalato.
- A single coordinating body against exploitation, namely the creation of an independent Authority and a National Labour Prosecutor’s Office to coordinate oversight and investigations.
- The interoperability of databases held by inspection bodies, to make the supply chain and the real cost of labour verifiable.
- More effective controls through the repeal of the “inspection shields” introduced in 2024.
- A protection programme offering assistance and income support to victims who report abuses, with safeguards against retaliation.
- Protected and conditional regularisation through an experimental programme that separates the administrative channel for regularisation from criminal complaints, while leaving fast-track protection for potential victims intact. Its planned components are: a temporary twelve-month permit, renewable only if the employment relationship is compliant; a named contract with wages in line with the collective agreement and traceable payments; anti-mafia, tax and labour checks on the employer before admission, with unannounced inspections; withdrawal of the benefit and harsher penalties in case of exploitation; limited and revocable incentives for compliant employers only; language, rights and safety training, with temporary housing and transport; the
