Employment is maintained in the ports of Livorno and Piombino even if critical issues remain regarding the state of health of the Employment Agency in the Port, professional qualification and gender equality, an issue on which there is still a long way to go
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This is the photograph taken from the last annual update (2023) of the Ports Organic Plan (POP), the important strategic document to implement which the Port Authority made use of the collaboration of ISFORT (Higher Institute of Training and Research for Transports)
The numbers
The data provided by the study – presented yesterday in the Consultative Commission and today to the members of the Partnership Body and the Management Committee by the Head of the ISFORT Logistics and Freight Transport Observatory, Andrea Appetecchia – highlight how the overall number of the Camalli of Livorno and Piombino decreased between 2022 and 2023 by 46 units, reaching a total of 1767 employees, of which 1499 operational (decreased by 133 units) and 268 administrative (increased instead of 87 units).
Looking at the internal dynamics of the individual ports, the study observes how the decline in port operations is concentrated more in the Port of Livorno (where the workforce has decreased by 101 employees) than in that of Piombino (-32 employees).
The overall number of employees in the port of Livorno has suffered a sharp contraction, especially among concessionaire companies (-59) and, to a lesser extent, among port companies authorized to carry out port operations and services (-20 employees).
In the port of Piombino the workforce is made up of 272 people overall. Compared to 2022, a decrease of 8.4% was recorded. Also in this case, the decrease in operational numbers, which went from 271 to 232 people between 2022 and 2023, was counterbalanced by the increase in administrative personnel, which grew by 7 units, from 26 to 33 people.
As already anticipated, most of the new positions registered during 2023 concern administrative functions, in particular in companies pursuant to art. 18, which in the Port of Livorno alone increased by 58% (+80 employees).
“From 2019 onwards, the decline in port staff was rather homogeneous across all components of port work, also due to the COVID-19 pandemic event,” we read in the POP.
“However, while administrative workers appear to have recovered in the 2022-2023 period the cumulative reduction from 2020 to 2022 (with a positive differential of 13 units between 2009 and 2023), operational workers, after a timid rebound in 2022, seem to have the downward curve has resumed (82 employees are missing compared to 2019)”.
The new insights
Compared to the previous POP – in which, also, the overexposure of the workforce to the risks associated with traffic volatility, the poor professional qualification of the pool of labor called upon to provide temporary work and its particular fragility in presence of a large workforce available at other port companies, employed with functions similar to those carried out by the pool, but with lower costs – the document takes a further step forward, going into greater depth on the dynamics of port work within of port ports.
Four focuses were taken into consideration: the contribution of women’s work, the issue of staff seniority, the analysis of duties in port, the issue of disabilities.
Gender equality
With regard to the issue of gender equality, the study highlights how in the port of Livorno alone the overall share of female work today stands at around 11% of the total. If there are a total of 1356 male workers, there are 163 female workers. This is a particularly low percentage value if we consider that female workers represent, on average, over 42% of the country’s employed workers. The share of female workers is further reduced if the analysis is limited to operational activities only, in which women represent 6% (78) compared to 1,182 males (94%).
As regards strictly administrative tasks, the share of employed women is decidedly more robust, even if it is a much smaller universe (252 employees) compared to that of operational activities (1,272 employees). However, the female share in this sector rises to 37%, approaching the national average of 42%.
The presence of women in port work in the Piombino port is much more limited where there are only 7 women, two working on the dock and five in administrative activities.
Finally, shifting attention to hiring prospects, it can be noted that, as regards the distribution of work by gender, in the next three years the male predominance will be further consolidated since, in the case of Livorno, the companies foresee the hiring of 62 men and of only 4 women, while in the port of Piombino it is estimated to hire 18 men and no women in the same period.
Seniority
The study then highlights how today just under one worker in 10 who works in the AdSP MTS ports is over 60 years of age. In particular, in the Port of Livorno they are 124 out of 1,492, while in that of Piombino they are 28 out of 267.
The most significant problem affecting workers over 60 is represented by the fact that over half of them are still employed today in demanding activities, i.e. in all those tasks that concern the movement of vehicles and goods on the docks (railway operator, unloading operator , marker, crane operator, etc.). The same phenomenon is found in the context of Piombino where the weight of the over 60s rises above 15%, and also in this case around three quarters of them are engaged in strenuous operational activities
In extreme summary, the number of operational employees (specialized and general workers) over 60 is 21 employees out of 28 in total in the port of Piombino (75%) and 73 out of 124 in the Port of Livorno
Job duties
The analysis of work tasks then offers another important glimpse into the organization of work in port. To date, seven main tasks absorb more than two thirds of the workforce (69.3% of the total) and are linked to the operational activities of loading and unloading the ship (coordinator/shift manager, multi-purpose crane operator, forklift driver, unloading operations officer, lashing operations officer). The performance of these tasks requires, in 44% of cases, a specialized worker (Coordinator/Shift Manager, Crane Driver and Multipurpose Rall Driver), while for all other tasks (25.3%) a general worker is sufficient.
White-collar workers represent a decidedly smaller share than operational workers, amounting to just over 10.5% of the overall workforce (administrative, operational and technical employees). The remaining 20.2% of employees are divided between managerial figures and those with specialist technical tasks (refrigeration managers and technicians, experts, etc.).
The issue of disabilities
As in previous years, the POP updated to 2023 explored the topic of disabilities, taking into consideration not only disabilities (total or partial) but also the complex of risks and impediments to work (exemptions, professional diseases, accidents, illnesses, etc. .) of the workers as a whole.
From the study it emerged, among other things, that the average frequency of impediment cases is decidedly higher among employees employed at port companies pursuant to art. 16 and the agency pursuant to art. 17.
The percentage of men and women with disabilities (or who have suffered accidents) in these two entities represents respectively 7 and 9% of the total, while in the total of companies the average is lowered to 5 and 7%.
Another interesting fact: the average number of exemptions for health reasons is higher for women than for men, while taking into consideration the frequency of accidents and days of absence due to accidents, in operational companies (art.16) they have double occurrences compared to the average ones in the port area. The same thing applies to occupational diseases which occur in 2% of cases overall and in 4% of cases in operating companies.
The art. 17
The report then underlines how the position of the Port Labor Agency, authorized pursuant to art. 17, paragraph 5, to the provision of temporary work within the Livorno airport, remains rather precarious.
The critical data continues to be represented by the fragility of the labor pool compared to the overall workforce of the port companies specialized in the contracting out of portions of the operating cycle, subjects employed with functions similar to those of the pool and with which the latter therefore enters into direct competition. It is no coincidence that between 2021 and 2022 the volume of Agency start-ups constantly decreased in the face of an increase in shifts worked by companies pursuant to art.16. In the last year, however, both the Agency’s starts and the overall turnover of port companies have recorded a clear contraction compared to the previous year
Among the critical issues mentioned by the POP are the modest range of professional skills possessed by the effective members of the Pool and the size of the share of employees with disabilities. These are 16 people partially or totally exempted from carrying out port operations.
The statements
“The document outlines a path that will have to be defined in the coming months also in relation to a real intervention plan on which the offices will be committed within a few weeks” declared the president of the AdSP Luciano Guerrieri, underlining that he wants to reach the end year with an effective reorganization of the port work model, an objective made even more necessary by the trends exposed by the Ports Organic Plan.
“In recent years, the AdSP has implemented an important planning activity to accentuate the function of monitoring the work shifts that are produced by the port companies and the traffic volumes handled by them. In the current year, we will further increase control activities, also making use of the IT tools developed within the Administrative Single Desk for the electronic acquisition of the communications that each authorized company is required to provide to the AdSP regarding the start-ups of the employees” concluded Guerrieri.
“The document prepared by the Port Labor Area in collaboration with ISFORT will help us develop the next evaluation steps on a strategic theme” declared the general secretary Matteo Paroli. “It is necessary to study a new organizational model for the ALP that is more relevant to the way in which today, almost 30 years later, the logistics of goods in transit in the port has developed
