Val Camonica, a week of closures for Unesco sites due to staff shortages

At the height of the tourist season, two major state archaeological parks in Lombardy remain closed to the public due to staff shortages. It happens, in fact, that from Tuesday, July 11 until today, Saturday, July 15, every afternoon visitors found the gates closed at the National Park of Rock Engravings of Naquane and National Archaeological Park of the Massi di Cemmo, both part of the UNESCO site of Val Camonica (Brescia), and both state sites. The closures are due to a shortage of state staff, employed by the Ministry of Culture, in many sites replaced by outsourced workers, who are increasingly important in ensuring the opening and enjoyment of the sites, who work on wages of 6 euros gross per hour and whose contracts are renewed every year.

Moreover, the closure of such important sites was announced with very little notice, when many tourists were already in Val Camonica, and moreover in the year of BresciaBergamo Capital of Culture. “The Naquane Park and the Massi di Cemmo Park are public goods, they belong to everyone,” says a worker who is part of the 5.37 Collective (the name refers to the pay, 5.37 euros gross per hour, that contract workers receive), to which some of the outsourced workers who keep the two parks open belong. “The Regional Directorate and the Ministry is the custodian of a common good, and has the responsibility to make them usable, to build a relationship of trust and respect with the users, but not only that: also to ensure decent working conditions for everyone, Ministry employees and not. In fact, the Regional Directorate is the same one that accepted for our contract a compensation below the poverty line.”

The scrolling of the ranking list in the last competition for museum custodians has in no way filled the chronic shortage of internal staff, and indeed, there have been numerous resignations for the province of Brescia. “Ministerial staff,” the worker continues, “are essential for the opening of some sites, to manage the cash desk and gates, but they are increasingly in short supply. As a result, those working under contract also have to make up for those tasks usually reserved for state staff, becoming indispensable for the enjoyment of the sites, and despite this receiving paltry compensation. In December we decided not to sign the contract they proposed to us, the Sites were closed for a week. The goal was to draw attention to a crucial problem that has been affecting these sites for years. If you want to solve the problem of precariousness, start here, giving dignity to those who enhance the museums of the Camonica Valley under conditions of increasing hardship and exploitation.”

The contract applied to contract workers is that of Trustee Services, with a pay, as mentioned above, of 5.37 gross per hour, compensation that gives its name to the newly formed collective formed by the outsourced staff of Val Camonica.

“For the same tasks,” says the Mi Riconosci association, “the employees of the security firm receive less than half of a ministerial employee, while they could and should be graded under the sector contract, the Federculture, which even at the lowest level guarantees a decent salary.”

Val Camonica, a week of closures for Unesco sites due to staff shortages

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