Listen to the audio version of the article
An increase of 260 euros for the average reference level in the three-year period 2024-2026, the reduction of working hours, a national control room on technological innovation and artificial intelligence, new ways of worker participation and the improvement of welfare. It is with this scheme that the unions of Poste Italiane, Slp Cisl, Slc Cgil, Uilposte, Confsal, Failp Cisal and Fnc Ugl, are preparing to renew the contract of 120 thousand workers, which expired at the end of 2023, as stated in their union platform. In the next few hours it will have to pass through the unit assets and then through the workers’ assemblies to subsequently be sent to the company. Raffaele Roscigno, general secretary of Slp Cisl, explains that «the increase is justified by the consolidated financial statements, the value of the stock and the high company profitability. It is also important to underline the high inflation rate which has been penalizing employee salaries for some time.” In parallel with the wage increases, the CISL “will forcefully ask that the theme of participation be central in this renewal, so that the protagonism of workers within the country’s company can be established”.
The no to privatization
The unions are preparing for the renewal process with a platform that underlines “the indispensable value of the unity of the group”. And saying they are against privatization. Starting first and foremost with the general secretary of the CISL, Luigi Sbarra, who asks the Government for “an urgent discussion on this issue” and says no to divestments and sell-offs. «Putting this company on the market that works well, which has an important public role by presumably bringing in foreign funds, risks compromising its social function as well as its uniqueness», adds the general secretary of Uil Poste Claudio Solfaroli. «The topic of privatization also crosses that of the possible entry of Poste Vita into Tim’s NetCo. An interest in Tim like a karst river disappears and emerges from time to time”, says Solfaroli. The national secretary of Slc Cgil Nicola Di Ceglie dismisses the hypothesis of Poste Vita’s entry into NetCo as “a small operation, of a financial rather than industrial nature”.
Workers’ participation
In the union document there are two themes of strategic value. The first is “the prospect of a reference contract for companies in the delivery sector, the so-called last mile contractual area, to be defined”. The second is instead “the participation of workers, economic, strategic but also organizational and functional in the governance of the company”. The latter is a topic very dear to the CISL which has also drafted a legislative proposal and is the majority union at Poste Italiane with more than half of the members.
The control room on innovation
Given technological progress and the advance of artificial intelligence, this is the time for trade unions to create a bilateral body on these issues, «a real control room capable of constantly evaluating the impacts, collecting data and knowledge that allow us to support fair and balanced, person-oriented development”, they write.
New positions, reduced hours and training
Technological evolution, however, also requires adapting the classification system of classifications and anticipating the evolution of the necessary professional profiles, already in the immediate future. Not only. Digital transformation enables “to experiment with organizational models that provide for the reduction of working hours for the same salary, also to anticipate the effects of technological evolution on employment levels”, write the six Poste Italiane acronyms. Given the context of continuous evolution of the skills needed in all company areas, according to the unions, training must also be made compulsory during working hours.