TRENT. No détente in the confrontation between the Municipality and the unions on the nursery school issue.
“Despite our requests to reverse course on the management system of children’s services, the Municipality of Trento has decided to proceed once again with the outsourcing of a nurserywhich is added to the 17 already privatized compared to the 7 under direct public management”, writes the CGIL.
The union speaks of “a choice that we continue to believe is wrong because it is based exclusively on savings, which translates into worse regulatory and remuneration conditions for third sector workers”.
A note illustrates the reasons for the opposition expressed: “Problems that the municipal council knows well and which it cannot resolve by invoking the ownership of the province to strengthen the territorial integration of the sector, a topic on which we also absolutely agree and we also we are measuring”, explain Mirko Vicari and Luigi Diaspro of the CGIL public service to the results of last night’s municipal council which decided to award the new nursery to a contract for six years Pandi Bear.
“The commitments to strengthen the public structure of municipal services for children – adds the CGIL – are not convincing if at the same time an additional nursery is entrusted to third parties.
We are awaiting formal information on the announced expansion of the organic plant linked to the opening of the new nursery at the Interporto (for which the structure, however, is rented for only three years) and to the uncertain start of the experimentation of the nursery centres, fearing however that any related hiring will be exclusively for a fixed term. If we really intend to strengthen the public structure, it would be necessary to initiate more precise and long-term planning.
We need to get out of the ambiguity and each assume our own responsibilities: if you are aware of the salary and regulatory gap between contracted workers and those in direct public management, act accordingly without invoking the skills and responsibilities of other subjects. More coherent would be to simply stop outsourcing services, even more so if it is said that it is not an economic choice, and invest more in public management.
The public nursery staff has been in great difficulty for some time due to absences without replacement, training even outside working hours, hours for non-direct activities with children not always used correctly, even low salaries even compared to the qualification required, as well as an increasing difficulty in recruiting new staff , especially for short substitutions.
Further outsourcing leads to greater precariousness in a sector already highly characterized by many fixed-term contracts and involuntary part time, in an overall situation in Trentino in which at least a third of nursery staff are employed on a fixed-term basis and only a quarter of employees have a full-time contract.
It should also be underlined that the choices of the capital municipality also set the course for medium-small municipalities, even more so if they do not have the same resources. In fact, we have received news about the willingness of other municipalities to proceed with the outsourcing of nursery schools”.
Vicari and Diaspro also underline the burning issue of low salaries: “The salary issue that President Fugatti himself has declared he wants to address is also fueled by situations like these: otherwise virtuous public bodies that consciously they follow the path of saving money on workers by fueling dumping and, on the other hand, the lack of investments and resources necessary to adequately renew the provincial supplementary social cooperatives which has been stagnant for 18 years”.
