LIVORNO The Sughere canteen has been closed for five months. And all this, in addition to generating inconvenience and fitting into the general conditions of dilapidation of the structure, means that the contract workers are without a job. This is the situation denounced by the Filcams Cgil and Uiltucs unions who ask for a meeting with the regional superintendent of the Ministry of Justice and the management of the prison.
«Workers at home»
«The workers on the Livorno prison canteen contract have been without pay for five months – say the unions -. After a change of contract for catering services which ceased in December 2023 and which should have resumed from 1 January 2024 with the new service company, Klas Service. Precisely since that now distant January, however, the canteen rooms have been closed waiting to be renovated”. The trade union organizations say they have worked with the Tuscany Region to find alternative solutions: other premises to carry out the service, vehicular service, support cooking centre, field kitchen. «In short – they say – a wide range of constructive and concrete proposals to protect female workers, but never taken into consideration».
«Late work»
In the meantime, Filcams Cgil and Uiltucs Toscana have asked for a certain date for the start of the renovation works inside the prison but “only a few days ago the news arrived that they will not start before July”. This is a response that greatly worries the two trade union organizations.
“Something must be done”
«This is a public contract, which should therefore be synonymous with certainty for the contractor, for the provider of the services, but above all for the workers who, we remember, are linked primarily to the contract itself regardless of the company that is awards the contract. How is it possible to award a contract of this type without then giving the possibility to carry out the service?”, says Katia Sagretti, Filcams Cgil of Livorno. And Sabina Bardi of Uiltucs Toscana adds: «We believe that there are joint and several responsibilities, as well as moral and social: too much time wasted to have vague and inconclusive answers. We ask ourselves how it is possible for the penitentiary structure and we ask the prison and the Ministry of Justice, which is obliged to provide its employees with a hot meal, the real reasons for this delay in time, which has created and is continuing to create disservice to the themselves as employees as well as related workers.” L
