Bar work is arduous, like mining, says Italy union

ROME, July 18 (Reuters) Most people would agree that miners have a tough job. Now an Italian trade union wants people such as barmen, hotel porters and even ballet dancers to be ranked alongside them.

As part of negotiations with the government over reforms to the pensions system, unions are pushing to widen the category of jobs officially considered ''arduous'' so such workers can retire earlier than people in less stressful occupations.

Currently the list is restricted to traditionally tough-sounding jobs like mining and deep-sea diving, but to soften the blow from plans to increase the minimum retirement age from the current 57, unions want the list expanded.

Luigi Angeletti, head of one of the three main unions in talks with the government, told Corriere della Sera daily that any job which has nightshifts should qualify, including nurses, police and hotel porters.

Primary school teachers should also be on the list. ''I'd like to see you keep control of 25 wild children -- what a bunch of stress,'' he said.

The life of an Italian barman was not all flirting with the customers, he added. ''A barman can't choose. If he has 10 people in front of him who want a coffee, he can't go and smoke a cigarette, he has to speed up his work.'' The plight of Italy's ballet dancers was also a ''serious problem'', Angeletti said, saying that the 300 of them employed in Italy should be allowed to retire at 45.

The pensions negotiations are proving one of the toughest challenges Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi has faced since being elected a year ago as he tries to square demands from the left to soften reform plans with the need to reduce the cost of pensions to the state.

REUTERS SW RK0958