Contract labor is a verGogna: at Pompeii Park, Cobas organize a garrison of precarious workers

At the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, the Private Labor Cobas have called for a garrison of precarious workers on Saturday, February 1, to demand equal rights with their colleagues working for the state. To the cry of “contract work is a verGogna” (this is the slogan of the garrison), the Cobas are lashing out at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage: “even in 2019,” reads the note presenting the demonstration, “the archaeological parks of Pompeii and Herculaneum have increased visitors and receipts, registering about 4 million admissions the former and more than 558,000 the latter. A daily average, then, of 11 thousand and 1,500 visitors respectively. Yet despite the enormous flow of money that these numbers ensure, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the relevant superintendencies continue to abuse contract work. In fact, the main reception and security activities necessary for the normal operation of the Archaeological Parks (reception, guide office, information office, ticketing, access control, security, sanitation) are provided by personnel employed by contracting companies, including the companies Opera Laboratori Fiorentini Spa and Ales - Arte Lavoro e Servizi S.p.A. (an in-house company of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities), Emme Service, who for years have been condemned to precariousness and discriminatory economic and normative treatment compared to their fellow public employees.”

For the Cobas, the staff who depend on the contracting companies are “second-class workers with less pay, fewer rights, often with part-time and/or fixed-term contracts, and, even, with fewer protections regarding health and safety in the workplace, given that the staff is forced to ensure their work performance exposed to the elements, in all weather conditions, lacking appropriate personal protective equipment and with available premises and toilets that are, to say the least, ’dilapidated’.” And the working conditions, according to the Cobas, “in every contract change will only get worse.”

Still, say the Cobas, “the workers of the companies Opera Laboratori Fiorentini, ALES, EMME Service who work under contract at the archaeological parks of Pompeii, Herculaneum after years of precariousness and exploitation, have the right to equal dignity of their colleagues employees of the archaeological superintendencies, equal pay, equal contractual protections and equal protections in terms of health and safety in the workplace.” And therefore, they conclude, “it is time for the Ministry of Cultural Heritage to start a path of stabilization and internalization of the staff now working under contract that will put a definitive end to precariousness.”

Photo: the Park of Pompeii. Ph. Credit

Contract labor is a verGogna: at Pompeii Park, Cobas organize a garrison of precarious workers

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