ADL Cobas Padova also signed the “Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a round table at the Municipality of Padua on the subject of procurement of works, supplies and services”. Present at the meeting were the coordinator of ADL Cobas, Riccardo Ferrara, and the councilor for labor and employment policies. An acronym that aims to highlight new points to strengthen common actions: the adjustment of wages, i.e. fair wages and the consequent respect for contractual aspects, and protection of the quality of work detached from the penetrating logic of maximum reduction. The protocol has changed from the one signed on May 14th by the Municipality of Padua represented by the councilor for labor and employment policies, provincial trade union organizations Cgil, Cisl and Uil, employer parts of Confindustria Veneto Est, Ance Padova, Confartigianato Imprese Padua, Cna Padova, as a concrete response to the new regulations introduced by the Public Contracts Code, Legislative Decree no. 36/2023, in force since last July, which replaced the previous legislation on procurement.
Administration
«I repeat – underlines the councilor for social and labor, Margherita Colonnello – how this protocol is an important message that confirms the Administration’s desire to continue in the formalization of the discussion table on procurement, opened six years ago and still now in force beyond, to deal with the legislation introduced by the new Contract Code. I am satisfied, therefore, that ADL Cobas also shares this path by placing further emphasis on the quality and safety of work, also demanding fair and adequate wages”.
Adl Cobas
«Today, as already done previously – declares the coordinator of ADL Cobas, Riccardo Ferrara – we have signed a new protocol on contracts relating to works contracted out directly by the Municipality or contracts relating to investee companies. A rewriting due to the national regulatory change but which for us meant opening also with regards to the Municipality of Padua a path aimed at guaranteeing in all contracts, in addition to safety and legality, also better working conditions for employees and a path that leads to guarantee the minimum wage that is talked about so much but which to this day remains a pipe dream. A path that we believe should see the Municipality of Padua at the forefront but which must then necessarily be extended to all public institutions which can thus finally abandon the practice of procurement at the lowest prices or at the most economically advantageous price. As we said, for us this is a first step that certainly goes in the right direction of restoring dignity to all outsourced and procurement workers. For us in any case, institutional protocols and paths always go hand in hand with struggles in the workplace, because we are convinced that without conflict, rules alone are not enough.”
The news
The new agreement signed confirms and renews the process of discussion between the Municipality and Adl Cobas in the field of procurement opened in 2022, strengthening, at the same time, the sharing of the common objective aimed at directing the choices of all public institutions on the quality of work, bypassing the penetrating maximum downside logic.
The objective of the discussion table opened by the Municipality of Padua has always been to focus on the quality of the work understood both in reference to the contractual and safety aspects, and to the conditions of exercise of the work activity in the awarded companies, a fundamental element , the latter, to determine the awarding of works, supplies and services. Everything is based on the common belief that better quality jobs, goods and services guarantee reliability and also the best possible result, are more durable, sustainable, fair, beneficial and pursue the interest of workers and the entire community. In detail, the signed agreement applies to public procurement, work concessions and contracts relating to the supply of goods and services, as required by the new Code, and subsequent amendments and additions, stipulated by the Municipality of Padua. The agreement provides that the signatory parties meet every six months, or at the request of one of them, and whenever the need arises in relation to the topics discussed. They will be responsible for reconvening in the event of changes to the procurement legislation and to verify the correct application and functionality of the same. The principles contained in the agreement will be implemented in the tender procedures and in the contracts for the execution of works, for the purchases of goods and services not already present in the schemes adopted by the Municipality of Padua.
