The amendment to the Cohesion law decree to give the 330 former TCT-Evergreen port workers of Taranto another nine months of compensation for failure to start up (from April to December 2024), was presented in the Budget Committee of the Senate. It was signed by senator Ignazio Zullo with the contribution of deputy Dario Iaia, both FdI parliamentarians. Another 6.6 million euros expected.
The discussion
But to know the fate of the amendment we will have to wait for the European elections to pass given that the assembly of Palazzo Madama has suspended its work from 2 to 7 June and that the Chamber is convened on 11 June at 4pm. Currently the legislative decree it is still in commission and in recent days the House has been dealing with the Premiership. Compared to the various attempts already made to extend the IMA to dock workers, attempts which have so far failed due to a question of resources, this time things should go differently due to the fact that the funds necessary for the extension do not come from the ministries (Work and Infrastructure and Transport) but by the port authorities concerned. In the specific case, Taranto and Gioia Tauro, which are transshipment ports included in the 2016 regulation establishing the Agency to which these workers, without employment, were entrusted (two agencies have been created, one per port).
The amendment
Zullo’s amendment intervenes with article 24 bis, “Urgent provisions for port workers” and extends the functioning of the Agency and therefore the provision of the compensation, from 81 to 90 months. The Ima is equivalent to a redundancy fund. “The resulting charges – it is stated in the amendment – amounting to 6,600,000 euros for the year 2024, will be provided for by using the available administrative surplus relating to the 2023 financial year of the budgets of the Port System Authority of the Ionian Sea and of the Port System Authority of the Southern Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas”. This way out was identified in the meeting at MIT on April 23 and has now been put in black and white. It is likely that the Government will also intervene with its own amendment to the Cohesion Decree.
Both the 2016 regulation, which became law (number 18) in February 2017, and subsequent ones, provide that in ports in which at least 80 percent of the movement of containerized goods takes place or has taken place in the last five years in transhipment mode and persists for at least five years, states of corporate crisis or cessation of terminal activities, exceptionally and temporarily, for a maximum period not exceeding 81 months, starting from 1 January 2017 is established by the Port System Authority, in agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, an Agency for the provision of work in port and for professional retraining. The redundant workers of the companies converge here, including those of the companies that hold the concession. The 81 month deadline is recent. It was established by the Milleproroghe law (number 18 of last February), Milleproroghe which extended the Ima by a further 3 months, from January to March. However, we read in the report accompanying Zullo’s amendment, following the “Covid-19 epidemiological crisis which has also involved this sector, as well as the war events currently underway, it becomes fundamental for the concrete achievement of the aim of the Agency itself, the time limit exceeding 81 months, thus allowing an extension of the Agency’s activities by a further 9 months”. The additional 9 months of IMA should serve to advance the various projects in the port area in which the former TCTs can be relocated.
For the 6.6 million, the two Authorities “present the necessary availability”, the report continues. In 2022, 8.789 million euros were allocated to the two ports for the Ima, of which 7.154 to Taranto. Overall, there were 457 dock workers involved in 2022, of which 372 in Taranto (but they have now decreased to 330). 252 days were paid, equal to a daily salary of 83.1 euros, equivalent to one twenty-sixth of the monthly threshold salary (2,159.48 euros) envisaged for the granting of the maximum salary integration treatment. Amounts confirmed now.
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