Agenda: New tender for the cleaning service: protecting workers’ wages and rights

Agenda: New tender for the cleaning service: protecting workers’ wages and rights

Taking into account the path carried out by the First Control and Guarantee Commission following the topic presented by the Rights in Common council group: “Topic requested with n. 76 of 11/20/2023 regarding “Cleaning contract for the Municipality of Pisa: checks and critical issues”

Taking into account that the Commission has held several sessions on the subject in order to verify the progress of the contract itself before the municipal administration proceeds with the new tender given that the contract is expiring and precisely
March 20, 2024:
April 17, 2024
June 5, 2024
7 June

Taking into account the documentation provided on 9 May 2024 by the competent offices and examined by the Commission:

“1) contracts signed with Euro&Promos and Miorelli and subsequently only with Euro&Promos;

2) Technical specifications of the contract;

3) Supplementary attachment to the technical specifications;

4) List of personnel assigned to the service with indication of the number of weekly hours assigned by the company;

5) List of properties covered by the contract, divided between those which are actually cleaned to date because they are used and those which are currently not cleaned because they are closed”.

Considering that on May 9th the same competent office together with the above-described documentation reported the following state of the art to the Commission on the new tender and the related issue of municipal properties to be included or not in the new specifications: “It should be noted that, to date, no document has been produced regarding the new assignment, as we are evaluating the various possible alternatives, especially with reference to the Consip legislation; for this reason, no assessments have been carried out regarding any additional properties to be included, even if the criterion will still be that of the actual use of the same and for properties with occasional use, the instrument of extraordinary cleaning interventions. The guard service is not the responsibility of this office and is not the subject of the cleaning contract in the strict sense”.

Taking into account that while the First Control and Guarantee Commission was carrying out this process on 23 May 2024 with resolution of the Directorate DD 06 Tourism – Historical Traditions – Culture, the Municipality of Pisa began a framework agreement with the Zenit Società Cooperativa Sociale for “the on-call cleaning service of historic buildings dedicated to hosting events and cultural initiatives promoted by the Municipal Administration and by various subjects of the cultural and economic fabric (including the Republican Arsenals, the Fortilizio della Cittadella and the Guelph Tower, the Church of Santa Maria della Spina, the section of the city walls at Giardino Scotto, the Chapel of Sant’Agata and the C1 building of the Galilean Citadel) with expiration 31/12/2026 for a maximum amount of €39,000.00 plus VAT of law)”.

Taking into account that while the First Control and Guarantee Commission was preparing to conclude this process, on 5 June 2023 the City Council filed with the secretariat of the City Council the proposal for the third variation to the DUP 2024-2026 regarding the Amendments to the Three-Year Program of Purchases 2024-2026 which includes: “the purchase of the cleaning service for municipal buildings for a total amount of 1,830,000 for a contract duration of 60 months”.

Taking into account that in relation to both the framework agreement with the Zenit Società Cooperativa Sociale and the resources included in the variation to the DUP 2024-2026 for the new tender procedure for the assignment of the contract for the cleaning service of municipal buildings, the trade union organizations have highlighted that there has been no form of information from the municipal administration, despite the requests for discussion made by them in recent months starting from the critical issues that have emerged in recent years.

Taking into account that even the First Control and Guarantee Commission itself was not informed in any way of these intentions and times by the municipal administration, thus highlighting the absence of a collaborative relationship with the same commission in order to improve the quality of the work, wages and rights of the workers employed in the contract and therefore of the service itself.

Remember that the tender procedure for the current assignment of “the contract for the cleaning service of municipal offices and premises to be awarded with the criterion of the most economically advantageous offer” was announced with resolution dated 8.06.2018 for a total amount starting price of 1,794,257.78 euros excluding VAT for a duration of 5 years.

Remember that with resolution dated 06.06.2019 the aforementioned service in favor of the then RTI between companies was awarded to EURO&PROMOS FM SpA and MIORELLI SERVICE SpA a Socio Unico – as it had ranked 1st in the ranking, having presented the most economically advantageous offer, with the average weighted discount at the time of the economic offer of 23.42%, for the amount of 1,088,072.35 euros, excluding VAT for five years.

The significant discount with which the tender was awarded in a sector already characterized by low salary levels was highlighted.

Remember that the contract had various vicissitudes for which on 12.12.2019 the company Miorelli Service spa communicated to the Municipality of Pisa to withdraw from the grouping, and from 1 February 2020 the same Municipality of Pisa thus awarded the entire service to EURO&PROMOS FM SpA

It is highlighted that in the case of this contract we find ourselves in the presence exclusively of female work in a very low-paid sector with the prevalence of part-time contracts for which the workers are also forced to do multiple jobs in order to make it to the end of the month.

Taking into account the data provided to the First Control and Guarantee Commission by the competent offices regarding the current use of manpower and the respective hours.

Taking into account that, as emerged from the hearings of the trade union organizations and the workers themselves, most of them have been working for a long time, in some cases for over 10 years, at the Municipality of Pisa to carry out these essential services for the functioning of the structure.

It was highlighted how these workers, particularly during the pandemic, carried out work in very difficult conditions, covering irreplaceable functions for the performance of municipal services

Taking into account that numerous critical issues emerged from the hearings of the trade union organizations and workers regarding the current contract with regards to the contractual and salary conditions of the service workers but also with regard to the organization of the same: from the difficulties linked to the continuous movement in multiple locations to the absence of a changing room at Palazzo Gambacorti, to serious problems in terms of safety and workload for example in waste disposal, as in the case of Palazzo Gambacorti.

It was highlighted that not all municipal offices were included in the 2019 contract but only a part of them, responding only to some specific typologies as reported in the document provided by the offices and thus excluding important municipal spaces: these critical issues were highlighted already in 2019 by the trade unions before and after the contract was awarded due to the effects that this would have had in terms of reducing the number of hours for female workers with an immediate negative impact on the wages received and on the surfaces included in the tender specifications.

It was noted that the workers themselves paid the consequences of these choices, despite the protests of the trade unions.

It was noted that several properties, although included in the contract, are not currently part of the service, because they are not used, such as some offices in the former districts as they are closed, as per the list provided by the offices.

It is highlighted that compared to the tender carried out in 2019, the amount of resources for the purchase of the service as per the variation to the DUP 2024-2026 regarding the Amendments to the Three-Year Procurement Program 2024-2026 presents a significant cut in the allocations equal to several hundred of thousands of euros.

Remember the proposals put forward by the trade union organizations and workers in the hearings held, which requested, starting from the difficulties that emerged with the reduced resources allocated in 2019, a greater allocation of resources for the new contract linked to an increase in the surfaces to be cleaned (spaces cultural, warehouses, etc,,) and therefore an increase in the number of hours, as well as an improvement in working conditions to be specified also in the specifications, and a restoration of the safeguards.

It was noted that the commission was also requested several times by the trade union organizations to verify the different possibilities for awarding the service with reference to the Consip legislation, to which, however, no response has been given to date.

The city council

• highlights how the choices made in 2019 regarding the contract for cleaning services for municipal offices and premises both in terms of surfaces inserted and resources allocated, also in light of a significant reduction by the winning entity, showed numerous critical issues which have had a negative impact in terms of wages on the workers and therefore on the service;
• therefore notes how the concerns expressed by the trade union organizations even before the awarding of the service in 2019 were not only well founded but should have received a positive response from the municipal administration which instead did not occur;
• believes that having included only some municipal buildings and not a wider audience in the 2019 tender had negative repercussions in terms of service and work organization with negative repercussions on female workers;
• judges negatively the acceleration that has taken place in recent weeks by the municipal administration while the First Control and Guarantee Commission concluded its verification process on the progress of the expiring contract and without adequate discussion with the trade unions;
• believes that in light of the critical issues highlighted it is necessary to proceed with an improvement in terms of wages and working conditions for all the workers involved in the contract with a careful verification in view of the new tender, also the result of a preventive process with the trade unions both on the possibilities of relying both on the surfaces to be inserted and on the resources to be allocated;
• calls for a check of the salary scales of the Integrated Services/Multiservices CCNL, the sector’s collective bargaining agreement signed by the comparatively more representative trade unions, which in the current contractual validity will see two further increases in the basic pay in the months of July 2024 and July 2025, which is why the allocation of resources included in the change to the DUP 2024-2026 regarding the Amendments to the Three-Year Procurement Program 2024-2026 seems inadequate;
• highlights how the parameter of the most economically advantageous offer in the assignment of the tender does not correspond to an adequate quality of service and adequate wage guarantees and protection of the rights of workers and for this reason believes that it is necessary to include quality parameters in the awarding of the contract , also evaluating the possibility of a path to re-internalise the service;
• therefore expresses dissent for the method followed for the definition of the resources for the purchase of the service included in the modification of the Three-Year Procurement Program 2024-2026 and deems it urgent and not to be postponed by the municipal administration that, in light of the aforementioned findings, it reopens discussion with the trade unions before proceeding with the approval of the allocation of resources for the new tender.