Botta and put between the president of Confindustria Carlo Bonomi and the Minister of Labor Andrea Orlando after the position taken by the government exponent for a pact that subordinates the support to companies to the adjustment of wages. «Dear Minister Orlando – said the leader of the industrialists -, the path you are proposing is not the right one. The Pact for Italy cannot be built with blackmail, like yours. Proposals of this kind show, for the umpteenth time, the anti-industrial sentiment that pervades Italy ».
Orlando’s reply: «Blackmail? I said something very simple, I did not understand what you want to put into this pact, if it means asking for something it is not a pact, but a pact is if everyone puts an availability. Mine did not seem like a subversive proposal. This reaction surprises me, because it gives me the idea of an unawareness of what can be produced in the country in the near future. We risk the social crisis and a fall in domestic demand. This is what businesses should be worried about “.
Bonomi: more money in the pocket of the Italians with the cut of the wedge
The president of Confindustria underlined: “We are in a country where skills are neglected, we are in a country in which those who have not worked a day in the factory are pontificating about the company”. Then he recalled: “Since the formation of the last budget law we have been insisting on putting more money in the pockets of Italians with the contribution cut of the tax wedge, to make our businesses competitive: especially today it is unthinkable with the increase in cost of raw materials, cost of energy, with margins that have shrunk, that we can raise wages. We have to put the money in the pocket of the Italians by reducing taxes ».
“Ready to sacrifice on condition government reforms”
As industrialists “we are willing to make sacrifices but on one condition: the Government really opens the season of competitive reformism. This country has been waiting for reforms for 20-30 years. We were told they couldn’t be done because there were no resources. Now with the PNRR, the resources are there, there are no excuses, “said Bonomi. «And they must be done – he added – for the future of the country, for the next 20 years. For a modern, efficient, inclusive, sustainable country. Reforms necessary to overcome together the difficulties of a long period, the country has been suffering for 2 years ».
Orlando: minimum wage and bargaining, not just wedge
For Orlando, however, “there is not only the tax wedge on which we can all agree if there were the resources. However, however generous they may be, they will never be sufficient to cope with the situation that is being created. Then you have to play all the keys of the piano, all the instruments available. Including a reflection on bargaining, ”the minister explained.