From the assembly held at the Conciliazione Auditorium in Rome with around 1,500 delegates arriving from all over Italy, the three trade unions gave the green light to a unitary platform of demands that ensures common demands for the over 3 million workers involved, from trade to tourism, catering, services, transport and care.
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For the category with the largest group of workers within the private sector, the contracts are due to expire on 31 March 2027. The unions now aim to accelerate the process and start discussions with the sector's employers' associations in order to create the conditions for the renewals to be signed within the first quarter of next year.
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With the indication of "not suffering the delays of the previous rounds", Filcams, Fisascat and Uiltucs underline the urgency of reaching the renewal of a national contract which is confirmed as the "main safeguard for the protection and fight against inequalities for millions of workers and the instrument through which innovation can be translated into quality employment".
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At the top of the requests that the trade unions will bring to the table with the sector's employers' organizations stands the recovery of purchasing power, with the recognition of a monthly increase in the paycheck of 220 euros when fully implemented for workers in the sector.
Still on the salary front, the platform highlights the need to increase the number of seniority increases in the tertiary sector and the adjustment of the related amounts. For trade unions, the awards reward the professionalism acquired through experience over a longer working life.
Among the demands, the salary adjustment on increases for Sunday, public holidays and night work stands out. As regards availability, the unions are pushing for a cap on the number of Sundays worked, the stringent application of the principle of voluntariness and greater guarantees for caregiver employees and those with care duties.
The aspect of hours is dedicated to the reduction of involuntary part-time by increasing a minimum threshold provided for in the national contract. The workers' representatives ask for restrictions on flexible clauses and the consolidation of extra hours worked on a regular basis.
In the platform, the indication emerges to stimulate the stabilization of fixed-term and temporary workers. There is then room for changes to classification systems and professional classifications that take into account technological innovations and organizational changes. Welfare chapter: the unions are pushing for the inclusion of greater contractual protections, from supplementary healthcare to supplementary pensions up to protections for safety and work-life balance.
In the document in view of the renewal of contracts in the tertiary sector, other requests appear, from the fight against forms of discrimination and harassment in the workplace to support for parenting and protection for those who work in procurement and franchising.
Satisfaction with the green light for the unitary platform was expressed by the three acronyms who in a note underlined the conclusion of a "broad and widespread participation process" and the start of the discussion phase with the employers' associations. "The mandate that comes from the assemblies in the workplaces and from the over 1,500 delegates gathered in Rome is clear: the renewal of contracts must strengthen wages, protect purchasing power and give concrete answers to precariousness, poor work and the growing fragmentation that affects the sector", declare Filcams, Fisascat and Uiltucs.
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