Italy, public sector workers on strike

Monday 19 December, joint action of Fp-Cgil and Cisl-Fp to amend budget package

On Monday, December 19th, the federations representing public sector workers within the three major Italian trade union confederations will take joint strike action for the whole working day in support of union demands to amend the forthcoming budget package.
Currently the burden of adjustments rests mainly on the shoulders of working people and pensioners through, among other things, tax hikes on basic goods and first houses, an abrupt change of the criteria for retirement, and freeze of indexation for pensions barely above the minimum.
At the same time, measures to tackle tax evasion, call the 10% of wealthier Italians to make a more substantial contribution, and reduce remuneration and benefits for members of political and management bodies in line with the Eu average, are much too hesitant.
On top of such measures that will further reduce the purchasing power of the majority of citizens and families, some provisions will directly affect public sector workers, for instance with the planned merger of the three existing social security institutes into one. This means that 700 highly skilled workers in service at the institute for public sector pensions (Inpdap) will be made redundant and might, according to recent law, permanently lose their job within two years.
All of these measures have been decided by the government without any real confrontation with unions. Continuing pressure has succeeded in smoothening the harsher inequalities a little, but this is by far not enough to call this package fair.

Public sector unions will call for
- A return to full indexation of average pensions to safeguard the right to a decent quality of life, all the more with a view to the effects of the planned rise of VAT and fuel taxes;
- A smoother passage to the new rules on retirement in order to better take into account the situation of workers nearing pension age, and that of women workers;
- A fairer design for the new Single tax on first house and local services to make it more progressive and ease the pressure on low income families and families with children;
- Introduction of a tax on wealth;
- Stronger measures against tax evasion;
- Active policies to support inclusion of women and young people into the labour market;
- A comprehensive plan to relocate all the workers made redundant by the suppression of Inpdap into the new single Social security institute, and make use of their acquired skills to further improve its services to citizens (the same holds for the staff of the suppressed Institute for Foreign Trade, whose functions should be taken up by a new Agency);
- An end to the policy of horizontal cuts in public administrations, and more resources for staff, training and second-level agreements;