Forty years after it joined the European Community and more than a decade after it overtook Britain in the league table of national wealth, Italy still has almost 300,000 child workers.
This statistic - which neither the government nor employers have challenged- is based on research by the biggest trade union federation. Sergio Cofferati, head of the leftwing CGIL, produced the figure on a visit to India where Italy's prime minister, Romano Prodi, has been trying to open doors for Italian traders and investors.
Mr Cofferati was warning of the dangers of buying goods from, or shares, in companies, which used child labour. For example, Italy is a big importer of footballs stiched by children in Indian sweatshops. But the problem, he said, was not confined to the developing world.
"We estimate that in Itlay nearly 300,000 children are made to work on a daily basis," he said. Precise data do not exist. All we have are the figures on reported industrial accidents on which this estimate is based.
The biggest concentration of under-age workers is thought to be in and around Naples, where their wages average about 70,000 lire (£26) a week. Many children are employed in the manufacture of fake designer clothes and accessories. There are hundreds of small family businesses turning out fake goods on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.
Other under-age workers serve in bars and shops or lend a hand as unofficially apprenticed motor mechanics. A recent industrial accident involved a Napolitan aged 14 who was crushed by a van in a garage. The use of children as drug couriers is common.
The minimun working age in Italy is 15. But a recent survey for the employment ministry found that 30 per cent of boys between the ages of 10 and 14 in southern Italy were in employment. Investigations into under age workers have an alarmingly high "hit" rate.
In 1995, the last year for which figures are available, government inspectors looked into cases of suspected under-age employment at almost 30,000 companies. Their suspicions were proved right in 11-12 per cent of the small commercial and industrial firms they investigated.
The head of Italy's equivalent of the CBI, Giorgio Fossa, agreed that the level of child exploitation was "disgrace". But, he said, there was no comparison between Italy and India.
It is one thing to deal with small numbers which have to be dealt with even so. But the situation in India and other countries world is quite another matter".

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