Since March 2020, the beginning of the pandemic, working time has increased for one in three workers, but for only 14.3 percent the salary has also increased. One in five carries out unpaid overtime hours or they are not compensated with rest. In general, women are less satisfied than men with career prospects, personal fulfillment at work and pay. But they are more interested in reconciling work and personal life also because they work more part time than men (28.1 percent versus 10.4) and from home (50.7 percent of women versus 57 percent). ,1 of men).
1,300 questionnaires
These are some of the salient aspects of the situation of workers in Lazio that emerged from the “Work survey. Conditions and expectations” created by the Di Vittorio Foundation, in collaboration with all the trade union structures of the CGIL, which at a national level reached a sample of over thirty thousand people, in Lazio almost 1,300, and which tells of a world characterized by specific needs, with a growing heterogeneity and a multiplicity of individual paths of exploitation and emancipation.
Differences with Italy
The regional focus was presented at the CGIL headquarters in Rome and Lazio and underlined specific characteristics and peculiarities, with the aim of providing tools for analysis and trade union action. While the sample of those who filled out the questionnaire is in line with the national average, the data on working times and wages show a gap with the rest of Italy, which signals an increase in exploitation above average.
“Having frenetic pace, with rigid and tight deadlines, and with a very high work intensity is another regional peculiarity, reported by 48.6 percent of the sample – explains Giada Polillo of Ires Lazio -. Furthermore, one worker in three reveals that they have no autonomy in their activity, while 20 percent have the possibility to choose times, methods and objectives”.
Everything smart
Other item examined: working from home, which in Lazio is considerably higher to the national average and affects almost half of the respondents (46.2 percent). Almost all are satisfied with working from home and 14.7 percent would also like to increase it. A sore point then concerns health and safety at work: “7.6 percent of those who work on contracts for the public administration suffered an accident in 2021 – continues Polillo -, of this share 4.2 percent reported and 3.4 did not. The investigation shows that companies that work on contracts for the public administration have a higher accident rate than others.”
Security dispute
This fact was underlined by Natale Di Cola, general secretary of the CGIL Rome and Lazio, in relation to the referendum proposals that the union is carrying out, for which already 600 thousand signatures at national level, 75 thousand in the region.
“The fourth question, the least known, concerns precisely the emergency we have with respect to health and safety in the workplace, which is much more serious than what official sources say – states Di Cola -. And it is even more serious in an area like ours where there are so many contract workers, who are less protected, more fragile and who find themselves alone when faced with the drama and in many cases are afraid. Our commitment in this area is important, but the production system must be changed and we must qualify the companies. Something happened in Latina the day before yesterday that we should be ashamed of. It is not acceptable for workers, in that case immigrants, to be exploited. It is inhumane to leave a person outside the home after an injury, with a broken femur and without an arm. We have made a complaint and in addition to mobilizing ourselves, we expect the institutions to intervene. We need a condemnation from the whole country so that the health and safety of the workplace becomes a crucial element of the dignity of people but also of the quality of our country.”
Salary emergency
At a territorial level, the CGIL is engaged on many other fronts, and the Di Vittorio Foundation’s investigation shows the way. “We need to strengthen the overall strategy of our organization – adds Di Cola -. This investigation confirms our studies and many of our concerns: there is a salary emergency in our country and the union can have a very important role with the renewal of contracts at the national and territorial level. But it’s not enough, we need to improve the conditions of workers by providing stability. The fight against precariousness is one of the themes that emerges from the research and on which we are committed.”
