In Italy, unemployment benefits are guaranteed by the Constitution. Article 38 ("Economic relations") states "[...] workers have the right to the provision of financial support sufficient to meet their needs in case of accidents at work, ill health, disability, old age and involuntary unemployment [...]". Esping-Andersen traces in this persistency the origins of the chronically high Italian unemployment rates. Cash transfers based on contributions and citizens' income The problem of unemployment has been primarily faced with governmental benefits, in the forms of cash transfers based on contributions (indennità di disoccupazione) and citizens' income. Redundancy fund Since 1947, and with reforms in 1975, cash benefits are also provided as shock absorbers to those workers who are suspended or who work only for reduced time due to temporary difficulties of their factories. This institute, the Redundancy Fund (Cassa integrazione guadagni, CIG), aims to help the factories in financial difficulties, by relieving them from the costs of unused workforce, supporting as well those workers that might lose part of their income. In fact, it might also hide unemployment and have been used as a form of occult financing for company reorganizations between the 1960s and 1980s. The workers entitled to Redundancy Fund receive the 50% of their previous wages (80% before 1988), under a maximum level established by the law, and their contributions for pensions are taken for paid, even if they are not (contributi figurativi). The Ordinary Redundancy Fund applies for temporary events not attributable to the employer or to the workers, like a temporary market crisis. It can apply for a maximum of twelve months in two years, for a maximum period of three months continuously. The Extraordinary Redundancy Fund applies, at the contrary, to other cases in which the production completely stops, also for a long period and also due to the employer’s decisions, after the authorization of the Ministry of Labour, such as industrial reorganizations, technological unemployment, crisis of the sector, bankruptcy, etc. It applies only to companies with more than 15 employees, and only to employees with more than ninety days of previous employment; it needs a preventive communication to trade unions, with which the employer has to make a common examination of the situation and to create a project to face the consequences for workers. The period of application of the Extraordinary Redundancy Fund varies according to its causes, but cannot be more than 36 months in