Abruzzo region seeks free retirees for library services, controversy ensues

The Abruzzo Region is at the center of a controversy over a call for applications published Feb. 25, 2025, seeking free consultants to support the Cultural Assets and Activities Service of the Social - Local Government - Culture Department. The selection is aimed exclusively at retirees with experience in the library sector, who are called upon to perform key tasks without any remuneration.

The initiative has been harshly criticized by the association Mi Riconosci?, which has been denouncing the precarious conditions of cultural professionals in Italy for years. Asking for unpaid work for essential activities is unacceptable according to the association, which has asked the region to withdraw the notice.

According to the official document, public and private sector retirees with “significant and qualified experience” in cataloging library holdings and ancient collections, library loan management and front office activities may apply. A highly specialized skill set that, instead of being enhanced with a decent contract, would be given to retired volunteers without compensation.

There are eight locations involved in the project, distributed among L’Aquila, Chieti, Vasto and other cities in Abruzzo. However, the notice does not clarify the number of people who will be selected, merely pointing out that their contribution “would significantly contribute to improve, in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, the performance of the activities within the competence of all the offices involved.”

The news has raised a heated debate among professionals and unions, who denounce a strategy now widespread in the world of culture: the replacement of paid work with volunteer work, a practice that experts say risks further undermining the professionalism and dignity of those working in the sector. “That of the Abruzzo Region is an unacceptable choice because it demonstrates the willingness of a public body not to invest in culture for its territory, preferring to resort to a solution with zero cost from the economic point of view, but very high from the human point of view,” says Valentina Colagrossi, an activist of Mi Riconosci. “The employment of retired, albeit competent, people free of charge to carry out the tasks outlined in the call for proposals comes across as a form of substitute volunteering, a phenomenon that is widespread in the cultural sphere and that excludes a large number of professionals from work, who thus see an employment opportunity disappear in a work context already marked by precariousness, top-dollar contracts and poor wages.”

“The lack of economic availability cannot be a justification because, precisely because of the importance recognized in these tasks, ways should be found to pay them correctly,” the association concludes. While an official response from the region is awaited, the association Mi Riconosci? calls for the notice to be withdrawn and for Abruzzo’s libraries to be provided with properly paid and protected staff.

Abruzzo region seeks free retirees for library services, controversy ensues

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