Take a break on meal vouchers. After the strike of the large-scale retail trade, which last June 15 decided to refuse ticket payments to protest against the commissions, the government is preparing an intervention to limit the tenders to the bottom.
“The step forward we are making today on the issue of meal vouchers is extremely positive and opens the way for a solution that we hope, once approved, will put an end as soon as possible to a situation that is now unsustainable for our companies, which pay excessive commissions to in the face of a valuable service provided every day to millions of workers “declare in a joint note ANCD Conad, ANCC Coop, FIEPeT Confesercenti, Federdistribuzione, FIDA and FIPE-Confcommercio declare who then add:” We acknowledge the commitment with which the Deputy Minister del Tesoro, Laura Castelli, has collected the requests of the companies, supporting a proposal of intervention that underlines the importance of protecting the system of meal vouchers, introducing a principle of fairness between the service offered and the commissions applied to the distribution and catering. The hope is that the solution identified, which will now be examined in the parliamentary halls, will be the first step in a process that leads to the necessary structural reform of the meal vouchers system, which can no longer be postponed “.
The intention is therefore to put a 5% ceiling on commissions and lay the foundations for a reform of the canteen replacement services sector by the end of the year. «In the first useful provision – assured the deputy minister – we will insert a rule that restores equity, and avoids the distortions of a sector that, in fact, penalized only the exhibitors. In a moment of particular crisis in the sector, also due to the negative effects of the Pandemic and the War in Ukraine, we ensure concrete support with lower commissions, to be paid by the exhibitors, which can be estimated at almost 150 million euros, for tenders alone. soon to be issued. Resources that will therefore remain with the exhibitors “.
A recent modification had in fact linked the price mechanism applied to merchants to the downward tenders announced by Consip for the Public Administration. The problem was that this had a decisive impact on the merchants, on which the discount was in fact downloaded. “Before the introduction of the rule – adds Castelli – on which we intervene, the mechanism of public tenders recorded values of the commission applied to exhibitors not exceeding 5%, in recent years instead they have seen this commission rise considerably”.
We are now aiming at a transitional discipline that will release the amount of the commission from the discount applied to the public administration. But also to continue towards to reform the sector by the end of the year.