Inclusion certification: the In&Aut project
Rewarding those who choose inclusion because they want to, not because they have to. This is not merely a semantic issue, nor simply a matter of regulatory adjustment. It is a paradigm shift, a small yet significant cultural revolution that is more necessary than ever in a country that is anthropologically resistant to top-down rules and more inclined to circumvent them than to comply with them. This is the rationale behind the Inclusion Certification: a legislative proposal born from my intuition and developed within the network of the In&Aut Festival, which we discussed together with institutions, companies, employers’ associations, experts, and professionals during the 17th Labour Festival held in Rome this past May.
So, what does it actually involve? In simple terms, it is a different method of encouraging companies to hire workers with disabilities, moving away from the logic of enforcement under Law 68/1999 on targeted employment and toward a logic of recognition. And how does it work? Very simply: if you are a company that genuinely believes in inclusion and hires one or more workers with disabilities, the State rewards you. Through a rating system, modelled on certifications already adopted in other areas (such as the legality rating issued by the Italian Competition Authority), companies would gain easier access to public funding, along with even more tangible benefits: exemption from employer-paid social security contributions and a tax credit equal to 50% of the expenses incurred.
It is a simple idea in its ambition: to measure, enhance, and incentivise corporate policies that support inclusion. No longer just quotas to be met, but the quality of inclusion itself. Of course, it is not a definitive solution. It will not solve everything. It will not bridge the gap on its own. But it represents a change in direction. And in complex processes, direction matters more than speed. The important news is that this proposal has already generated an unusually broad convergence of support. In&Aut — through its network, which now aims to evolve from a festival into an impact-driven social network dedicated to influencing Italian corporate culture toward more inclusive and disability-conscious approaches — has achieved something remarkable: bringing together worlds that rarely communicate with one another, from institutions to businesses, from the medical and scientific community to field experiences, from families to experts in education and employment. All of this has been made possible through the skilled coordination of the National Council of Labour Consultants, which, encouraged by the needs of nearly two million client companies, has fully embraced the cause of Inclusion Certification, offering its concrete support to In&Aut and to our small cultural revolution.
The Inclusion Certification is, in short, a genuine challenge grounded in a simple reality: today in Italy, a company that fails to hire a person with disabilities pays a penalty of €196 per day for every position left unfilled. Just over €50,000 per year. On paper, this amount should encourage a change in behaviour. In reality, however, it often becomes nothing more than a budgeted cost item. There is also another perfectly legal option: exemption. Companies can pay around €39 per day for every worker not hired — in other words, just over €10,000 per year. Much less than the cost of an actual hire. Much less than a real investment. And the outcome is visible to everyone. Companies do the maths. And they choose accordingly.
This is not cynicism; it is economic rationality applied to a system that was meant to promote inclusion but has instead become a mere compensatory mechanism. And this is not a technical detail. It is the heart of the problem. The numbers themselves confirm the trend. In Lombardy alone, more than €76 million were paid in penalties and exemption fees in 2023. By 2025, the figure had risen to approximately €82 million. These are not missing resources. They are missed opportunities that never become jobs. They are also a litmus test for the partial failure of Law 68/1999 — the legislation governing the employment and workplace inclusion of people with disabilities in Italy since 1999 (7% of the workforce in companies with more than 50 employees; 2 workers in companies with 36 to 50 employees; 1 worker with disabilities in companies with 15 to 35 employees). While the law introduced obligations, personalised agreements, exemption contributions, and economic incentives for hiring workers with disabilities, it has evidently failed to transform corporate culture around inclusion.
Since 1999, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities have entered the labour market. Estimates suggest between 500,000 and 700,000 placements overall — a significant number. Yet today, the employment rate among people with disabilities remains stuck at around one-third of the population. The gap has not been closed. It has crystallised. The question, then, is not whether the law worked, but how it worked. It functioned as a channel, not as a system. It created access points, but not pathways. It imposed quotas, but did not generate culture. In practice, it failed to address three structural issues.
The first is organisational: many companies are not equipped to welcome inclusion. Not because of hostility, but because they lack the tools, expertise, and support required. Inclusion is not simply about hiring; it is about building an environment.
The second issue is cultural: disability is still perceived as a risk rather than a resource. As long as this perception remains, every obligation will continue to be viewed as a cost to minimise.
The third issue is economic: the system offers predictable alternatives — paying a penalty or an exemption contribution. These are fixed, manageable costs, often lower than the perceived cost of inclusion itself. Under these conditions, the choice is not ethical; it is rational. And so the law becomes hollow from within. It remains a framework, but loses its transformative power.
In essence, then, a law exists — and thankfully so — but reality tells a very different story. In most cases, companies circumvent rather than embrace inclusion. Or they pay penalties instead of taking responsibility for women and men with disabilities who should be considered resources, not problems, within the workplace. There are not even objective and official data on the current staffing gaps in companies subject to the obligations of Law 68/1999.
The point is that as long as inclusion is perceived as an uncertain and difficult-to-manage cost, while penalties are seen as fixed and manageable costs, the system will continue to function exactly as it does today. Not because of bad intentions, but because it has been designed to operate this way. This is why the solution cannot simply be to raise fines. That is not enough. We must change the logic itself: move from a model that punishes to one that rewards, from a system that imposes to one that recognises, from a defensive equilibrium to an active choice. Because work is not a concession; it is an encounter. And it should be a natural encounter: the right person in the right place, the right company with the right talent.
In&Aut wants not only to help workers with disabilities find employment, but also to support companies in identifying the worker with disabilities best suited to their organisation. This should be almost self-evident. Yet when disability enters the conversation, that balance breaks down. Once again, the numbers tell the story clearly: according to ISTAT, only 32.5% of people with disabilities are employed, compared to a national average approaching 59%. The unemployment rate is double. This is not merely a gap; it is a fracture as wide as a fault line.
At the event “Autism and Work, Whatever It Takes,” alongside ministers, researchers, and experts, we also gave voice to the stories that truly matter. Stories such as that of Nico Acampora, the dynamic founder of PizzAut, as well as the experiences of companies like Auticon and hybrid realities such as (RI)GENERIAMO srl. These are signs of an Italy that already exists, but still struggles to become a system.
The truth is that inclusion is not an act of generosity. It is a form of economic intelligence before it is even a social one. It means broadening horizons, recognising skills, and generating value. Ultimately, it means stopping the view of disability as a limitation and beginning to consider it for what it truly is: a condition, not a definition.
Perhaps one law will not be enough. Perhaps it will take time. It will certainly require the contribution of everyone: businesses, politics, families, workers. But every change begins from a precise point. Not from an obligation, but from a choice.