Staffing levels, Digitalisation, Local government, Italy

(January 2017) The FP CGIL public services federation has analysed employment data to show the impact of job cuts and recruitment freezes. It estimates that there are some 237000 fewer public sector jobs than in 2007 while the health service has seen a fall of 50000 jobs since 2009. The recruitment freeze has also contributed to an ageing workforce with average ages across the public sector over 50 and rising. The union wants to see these issues addressed in collective bargaining with an urgent need to recruit young workers and for action on staffing levels in the health service.The CISL FP

(February 2017) The FP-CGIL public services federation has called on the government to stop the planned reorganisation of the fire service and to consult properly with the unions about any proposals to change the role and organisation of the service and the pay and working conditions of employees. The union says that the government has ignored the opinitons of the union over plans to restructure the service and reduce its autonomy by giving a role to the local prefecture.

(March 2017) The FP-CGIL public service federation reports that it has made some gains in the current negotiations over pay and reforms to the fire service. An EUR 80 a month pay increase will be implemented while the union will continue to negotiate a new collective agreement. The federation has also had some influence of the restructuring proposals put forward by the government and is particularly please that the fire service will retain some autonomy and not come under the control of the local prefecture.

(May 2017) The three public service federations (FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-FPL) organised a day of action on 23 May to highlight the problem of underfunding of provincial and city councils. The unions argue that indiscriminate cuts have to end and that inadequate funding poses a threat to workers' wages as well the delivery of essential services and maintenance of roads and schools. Workers were mobilised across the country on the day.

(June 2017) The three main public serivce federations, FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-FPL, have welcomed proposals to increase funding for provincial and city authorities following their protests last month. However, they say that it falls well short of what is needed to invest in infrastructure, schools and cover salary increases. For 2017 alone estimates put the funding shortfall at over EUR 600m when the government has increase provisions to only EUR 170 million. The unions say they will continue to mobilise and campaign for the increased funding.

Eight years on since the renewal of the last collective agreement, the Ministry of Public Administration has confirmed the timetable for negotiations over firefighters' pay and conditions. The FP CGIL union is looking for a pay increase to recognise the professional responsibilities of firefighters with a minimum €80 a month as agreed in the initial public sector pay talks last year. The union will also be looking for improvements in pensions and ways of dealing with accidents and occupational diseases.

Firefighters in the FP CGIL public services federation have called a demonstration outside parliament on 17 October. The aim of the protest is to underline the union's pay claim in the current round of collective bargaining as well as to call for action on a number of other issues including recruitment, pensions and funding.

The public sector federations, FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-FPL, have expressed their anger in delays to negotiations covering over a million workers in public health and local government. The unions argue that the basis for negotiations across the public sector were laid out in the framework agreement of November 2016 and there is no justification for not moving forward quickly with the sector-level negotiations. The three federations are planning a mobilisation for 5 February to put pressure on the government and employers.

The FP CGIL trade union has signed a new collective agreement covering firefighters which has important provisions for a general pay rise, increased overtime pay and increased payments recognising the arduousness of the occupation. With these key pay-related elements agreed, the union says that negotiations will now move on to deal with a wide range of other employment conditions covering health and safety, provisions for firefighters who can no longer manage active service, training, insurance against occupational accidents and diseases as well as the overall organisation of the service.

Trade unions are positive about the new collective agreement they have negotiated for the 560000 workers in local and regional government. On top of the EUR 85 pay increase per month there are improvements for specific groups of workers including the municipal police. Additional resources are available for local bargaining and there are improvements in a range of other conditions such as holiday entitlement and sick leave. More issues will now be covered by collective bargaining, giving more responsibilities to workplace trade union reps. The result is seen as a real advance on pay, rights and

The FP-CGIL public service union has raised serious concerns about the introduction of Amazon-style electronic bracelets for waste collection workers by a private company in Livorno. The bracelets communicate with waste containers to check they are empty. Union says that this degree of surveillance is excessive considering that there are already supervisors who monitor the work along with GPS systems in trucks. FP-CGIL says that employers should be concentrating more on dealing with the serious health and safety issues in the sector.

The FP-CGIL trade union federation has met with public administration minister Giulia Bongiorno to set out four urgent priorities for action. These involve tackling precarious employment, increasing employment, negotiating the next collective agreement that will cover the years 2019-2021 and ensuring increased investment in staff training. The union argues that it is not enough to simply end the freeze on recruitment as more needs to be done to boost employment or run the risk of a further decline in the quality of services. FP-CGIL also wants a limit on health spending lifted to allow for

The three main unions representing health workers - FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-FPL - have issued a joint call demanding urgent action to tackle doctor shortages across the health service. The three federations are particularly concerned about precarious employment, the need for more specialists and for a recruitment plan for doctors to be put in place as soon as possible. They made their case at a meeting with the Ministry of Health on 30 August where they highlighted the impact of austerity and recruitment freezes which have impacted emergency services above all. The unions have warned for many

Firefighters' unions in Spain and Italy are calling for government action to address a number of longstanding issues. In Italy the FP-CGIL trade union has declared a state of agitation around a number of key demands related to the collective agreement, recruitment, occupational safety, pensions and the right to elect workplace representatives. The union wants to see action to reduce bureaucracy and increase investment. Meanwhile, in Spain the unions want a framework law to establish a clear national structure for the service which is characterised by significant differences across the regions