After a first conciliation table, between the Municipality of Ponte San Nicolò SULPL, a second table was convened but the Municipality deserted
There is an air of tension in the municipality of Ponte San Nicolò, where the local police have called a strike for next Thursday 23 May, on the occasion of the passage of the Giro d’Italia through the municipal territory.
“After an initial conciliation table, in which the local authority, the mayor and the deputy municipal secretary took part and which had led to the suspension of the state of agitation by SULPL, the deputy prefect, considering the disputes surmountable, had called a second table but the Municipality has deserted” explains the SULPL Veneto subcommissioner, Simone Maniero.
“We had asked the Administration to open a discussion on the management of shifts, believing that an area of over 13 thousand inhabitants cannot be managed efficiently, with only 6 Local Police operators, distributed over three shifts and including holidays, and to compensate the consequent overload of work by increasing the external service allowance, which has remained at 1 euro gross per day for years – explains Maniero -, but also to establish the social security fund provided for by the Highway Code, withdrawing a small part of the proceeds from administrative sanctions, therefore at zero cost for the municipal coffers”.
Not only. “We also asked to review the Regulations of the Local Police Service which does not respect the regional provisions regarding the assignment of ranks and the attribution of top roles and does not respect the national legislation on armament”.
“The Mayor did not consider it necessary to deal with the most representative union of the local police which represents 5 out of the 6 officers on duty – continues the SULPL subcommissioner -. On the contrary, the operators’ dissent was punished with the suppression, after years, of the hourly reduction provided for by the contract and with the cancellation of the incentive projects”.
“For this reason, after almost two years of attempts, we have a state of unrest was proclaimed which he had brought to the conciliation table in the Prefecture, chaired by the Prefect’s deputy chief of staff” explains Maniero.
During the first session, convened in the Prefecture at the end of March, the representatives of the Municipality assured the workers that SULPL’s request to establish the social security fund had already been accepted, so much so that the conciliation table was defined as “useless”. “The fund, in fact, according to them, would have already been in place for some time (even though the operators knew nothing about it, nor had they been given any communication) – states Maniero -. The Mayor himself, on that occasion, had proposed a meeting in the Municipality, leaving the freedom to set the agenda to the workers, who therefore decided to discuss the social security fund”.
While waiting to view the official documents, which would have been sent to the workers, without the need for a formal request for access to documents (as they had been promised) and despite the doubts, SULPL had decided to suspend the state of agitation, also accepting the proposal of the Deputy Prefect to meet again after a month to take stock of the situation. “It goes without saying that during the “extra prefectural” meeting proposed by the Mayor he was unable to show any official document proving the establishment of the social security fund – says Maniero -, but only a “declaration of intent” vaguely mentioned in the decentralized contract 2023 – 2025 (which, among other things, the workers had to find independently on the Municipality’s website), which has not yet been physically given , execution”.
Finally the news: last April 10, in the offices of the Prefecture of Padua, SULPL was informed that the Mayor would not take part in the second session of the conciliation table. In fact, in the morning, the Mayor’s secretariat had communicated to the Prefecture that he would instead go to Suviana (BO), where the tragic accident at the hydroelectric power plant had taken place.
“On the recommendation of the Deputy Prefect, the Authority should have sent a representative to the table (since it was not essential for the Mayor to be present in person) – claims the SULPL sub-commissioner – or, alternatively, ask the union to be willing to postpone the meeting. Request that SULPL never received. The Municipality simply decided not to appear, without further communication.”
“A disrespectful attitude towards a high-ranking official of the Prefecture and which also denotes the lack of will to remedy the workers’ problems (as well as constituting an anti-union attitude, potentially punishable by law) – says Maniero -. Between one table and another there was no shortage of hostile behavior on the part of the Administration towards the operators, such as canceling holidays that had already been planned for some time for someone, to grant them to someone else: to the most loyal staff, those who, in order to obtain a vertical progression without competition, he is willing to do anything (except work on weekends!)”.
