Meeting between Mic-Cobas, the new ministerial political direction provides for internalization through in-house companies

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On 15 April 2024, a delegation of the undersigned OS Cobas Lavoro Privato and the RSAs of the Pompeii archaeological park and the Colosseum archaeological park were received in Rome, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, following the convocation of the cabinet representative of the Minister, in order to have a discussion following the urgent request for a meeting and the proclamation of the state of agitation of the workers of the aforementioned archaeological sites dating back to 25 March.

First of all, the trade union representatives pointed out that atavistic problems regarding health and safety in the workplace remain unresolved despite the repeated reports sent to the company Opera Laboratori Fiorentini SPA and also for information to the MiC, the General Directorate of Museums and the Pompeii Archaeological Park: the last notes sent in chronological order date back to 11 January 2024 and 9 April 2024.

In this regard, we learned with satisfaction that the MiC representative was immediately available to have the appropriate checks carried out, also by contacting the Director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park directly.

The representatives of the Cobas LP national executive and the RSAs present expressed strong doubts and perplexities about the reasons that led the managers of the most important autonomous institutes, such as the archaeological sites of Pompeii, the Colosseum and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, to opt to launch tenders and concessions for additional services to still be entrusted to private individuals despite the fact that they have always objectively boasted significant profits deriving from a very high daily turnout of visitors, which is among the highest in Europe and the world, and therefore equipped with full economic autonomy, rather than re-internalising the services and workers or at least establishing the absorption of the historical contracted staff into the in-house company of the MiC as has instead been arranged for some Campania museums which paradoxically have a lower turnout of visitors, compared to the great cultural attractions mentioned above, such as Capodimonte, Palazzo Reale, Castel Sant’Elmo, San Martino, etc.. and only for the teaching operators of the Colosseum.

The writers were partially satisfied in listening to the representative of the Ministry who reiterated and showed us in black and white, as he also said during the last meeting at the MiC on 18 December 2023, that the new ministerial political direction and the consequent directive literally provide “also internalization through in-house companies as part of the effective creation of the national museum system”.

The other chapter of discussion concerned the necessary adoption of the Federculture Ccnl which is more relevant to the tasks carried out by cultural workers, among other things regulated by law as essential public services and the undersigned shared with the representative of the MiC that the reform of the procurement code and some important judiciary rulings go exactly in this direction and therefore also according to the MiC representative, the application of the correct Ccnl (Federculture) starting with the workers of Ales SPA remains a political objective.

For the reasons set out above, therefore, to avoid unacceptable disparities in treatment between workers with consequent and costly collective legal disputes, possible treasury damages and considering that our cultural heritage now constitutes one of the few driving sectors for our economy, OS Cobas and the RSAs Cobas urge, in light of the reasons shared also with the administrative manager of the competent Ministry, the managers and RUPs of the autonomous museum institutes to take into account the recent jurisprudence on the matter and the ministerial guidelines regarding the adoption of the Federculture CCNL and internalisation of historical contract workers.

Cobas will, as always, do everything possible from a trade union and legal point of view to ensure that the rights, wages and dignity of cultural workers are respected.

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