POTENZA – «A few days after the presentation of the Ires CGIL report on the condition of nursery schools in Basilicata, in which we had denounced the serious lack of availability of places compared to the number of children, we suddenly find ourselves faced with the news of a possible further loss of places due to the closure, at least for the entire next school year, of an important municipal nursery in the city. This is the nursery in via Torraca which, due to imminent renovation works financed with Pnrr funds, will temporarily close. A true paradox. The Pnrr resources allocated to increasing places in nursery schools lead to a reduction in the offer in the capital city and the loss of jobs of the staff who work there.» The CGIL reports this and adds a series of details on the dispute: «We are talking about 60 places intended for the 0 – 3 year age group and 25 workers who will see the doors of the facility closed for adaptation work defined as undeferrable. The solution proposed by the Municipality would be to spread the children among the other nursery schools in the city, while for the workers it seems that the problem of what will happen has not even been asked, considering that it is an outsourced service entrusted to a social cooperative, to which the problem is in fact downloaded. A paradox resulting from the lack of planning on the part of this administration, which continues to navigate by sight. It has been known for some time that one of the missions of the Pnrr was intended to strengthen the educational offer in the 0 – 6 age range, so much so that the public notices for the implementation of the Plan for nursery and nursery schools and education and early childhood care dates back to December 2021 and the approval of the relevant rankings in September 2022.»
In addition to the inconvenience for parents and young users and the decrease in places available in the city of Potenza on municipal nurseries for new members, the impact on workers, unaware of everything and alerted by the same families who use the service, will be total. «What will happen to these 25 employees of the la Giostra cooperative, which currently manages the contract? The staffing of the other nursery schools does not allow them to also be assigned a partial quota, as is being tried to do for the children. We consider the autocratic modus operandi of this municipal council unacceptable, which ignores the role of the social partners and takes decisions in perfect autonomy that could have devastating impacts on the workers and on the users of the services themselves”, states the CGIL which calls for a clarifying meeting with the municipal administration.
