In Novara and Vco in June the job market is driven by hotel accommodation and catering thanks to the start of the tourist season, but the contracts are almost all precarious. The data emerges from the survey carried out by Excelsior on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, which analyzes monthly hiring in the Piedmont area at a provincial level. There are 6,230 contracts planned by companies in the provinces of Biella, Novara, Vco and Vercelli for June, 20% of the total revenue at regional level. Traits common to the four realities are the high percentage of fixed-term contracts; the demand for employment expressed by a few companies (17% in Novara, 20% in Vco); a difficulty in finding staff: 58% in Vco, 63% for Novara. The scheduled entries in June for Novara are 2,780; 23% are stable, with a permanent or apprenticeship contract, 77% have a fixed-term contract. The sectors expressing the highest need are accommodation and catering services (590 expected revenues), followed by trade (380) and personal services (290). In the VCO the planned entries are 1,220; stable in only 14%, fixed-term for 86%. Here too, the sector that expresses the highest need is that of accommodation and catering services (530), followed by trade (180) and personal services (110). On the one hand, restaurants, pizzerias and hotels complain about the lack of manpower, on the other they almost always offer precarious work: for companies it is a necessity, for the union it is the most convenient way to spend less on your paycheck.
The battle of the unions
«For this reason – says CGIL trade unionist Stella Cepile – among the referendum proposals we are effectively introducing the blocking of the undue use of precarious employment, which is particularly widespread in the hospitality and catering sector, where fixed-term contracts are often applied in a distorted way. who should have the permanent position. This way you won’t have qualified staff, because those hired have to start from scratch every time. And what about the paltry salaries reserved for waiters who must know at least three languages? Precarious work becomes an excellent excuse to keep wages low and is unacceptable.” In turn, employers in the sector reply that working in clubs and hotels is a job mainly linked to tourist flows. Emilio Zanetta, president of Federalberghi Novara: «With customers present all year round we would be the first to be satisfied and offer contracts for twelve months. But it is not possible due to the seasonality of tourism. However, we are committed to eliminating illegal work in this sector and ensuring that the national contract is applied, and both in Novara and in the Vco these results have been achieved.”
Extend the season
From the CISL, Luca Trinchitella proposes a solution: «We need to deseasonalize tourism, that is, extend the season to the whole year, taking advantage of conferences and seminars for example, but above all overcoming parochialism and networking, not only provincially, but regionally. Thus the conditions are laid for having jobs all year round and there are no more alibis for precarious employment.”
Employers in the sector, however, insist on the fact that even precarious work is today snubbed by younger people: Giulio Rovere, co-owner of the “riamo fritti” pizza chain with locations in both provinces, is desperately looking for students to part-time positions, «but it’s very difficult to find them. The problem in our case is that the hours are evening and weekend, and young people no longer accept sacrificing their free time. We work with 70% permanent contracts, but the work on Mondays is not equal to that of the weekend, where more staff are needed. Until some time ago it was the kids who offered themselves for a job of this type, but not anymore.”
