“In Italy the working conditions of firefighters are dramatic and Tuscany is no different.
Understaffed for too many years now, forced to work exhausting shifts especially in the summer period but not only, with increasingly frequent recalls and overtime returns, without Inail insurance against accidents at work and professional diseases, struggling with a government who hides the truth and is only capable of propaganda.” Thus, in a note, Mauro Giulianella, national coordinator of FP Cgil Vvf, and Giancarlo Gori, regional coordinator of FP Cgil Vvf Tuscany. “In 2030, the staffing of the firefighters, considering the retirements of the next few years, will have such a shortage that there will be a real risk of not covering the entire territory, if anything only the metropolitan cities – they continue -. These are some of the issues that we will put at the center of the meeting with the Minister of the Interior Piantedosi”. “The firefighters are working with 4000 operational and 2500 administrative (Rtp) fewer than necessary, in Tuscany the shortages in some commands are as high as 40% for the role of qualified people in the operational sector and also 70% for the administrative ones – resume the two representatives of the union -. With work overloads that are sometimes unacceptable, some offices have to remain closed due to lack of staff, it often happens that to make up for lack of vehicles, the same arrives from very far away with a considerable increase in intervention times and an increase in stress for the staff who finds himself driving a heavy vehicle in an emergency for long journeys, again last November the staff of the provinces of Florence, Prato and Pistoia, the ones most affected by the flood, were forced to work 24-hour shifts for days and days of rest by working, among other things, with equipment that is often old and inadequate. The fallback to extraordinary is now ordinary. Some would say that we are really broke. For years the union has been denouncing the critical issues linked to urgent technical assistance and excessive workloads, nevertheless the women and men who work in the area enjoy undignified treatment: for this reason we will be vigilant and if necessary we will call the staff to support the fighting initiatives”, conclude Giulianella and Gori
