ROMA (ITALPRESS) – Quality work, training, bargaining, representation. These are the central themes at the center of the second and last day of the 25th Confcom Forum (the new name of Confcommercio) which saw the participation, among others, of the general secretaries of Cgil, Cisl and Uil, Maurizio Landini, Daniela Fumarola and PierPaolo Bombardieri; of the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara; and of the undersecretary of Labour, Claudio Durigon. An open confrontation in view of the so-called Decree 1 May announced by the government. “In the market tertiary, Confcommercio’s contractual system, altogether, affects about 5 million workers – almost 70% of the total working relationships regulated in our country – and that our contract of the tertiary is the most applied contract in Italy. On this issue it is evident that there can be no shortcuts. Prioritary remains strongly opposed to the contractual dumping that today represents a real social plague, with lower wages, zero rights and welfare, which creates unfair competition among enterprises”, says Confcommercio president, Carlo Sangalli. “It is clear that this is not a side battle – he points out – but a battle that requires the contribution and a supplement of responsibility by all – politics, institutions, social partners – in compliance with the autonomy and social value of the intermediate bodies. Growth is not built by lowering the overalls, but raising the quality of the work. And this is done only in one way: through quality bargaining, that recalled by the legislator in relation to the employers’ and trade union organizations comparatively more representative”. The general secretary of Cisl, Daniela Fumarola, explains that at the “moment we had no interlocution with” the government “so we expect to know the text and, as it is in the tradition of Cisl, evaluate the contents. We consider that good contracts for us are those signed by the most representative comparative organizations at national level. This means that we must consider the bargaining that we subscribe with our counterparts: a set of rules, a set of aspects that do not only concern the wage, but the overall life of a worker and a worker in the workplace. We will refer to the government this – it continues – because it is the principle from which we do not enslave, then we reason on the content that we still do not know today”. The Secretary-General of the Uil, PierPaolo Bombardieri, asks that the government “look for the outcome of an ongoing confrontation, I believe that the government should wait and give us time to make an important agreement to renew an agreement that was already there and that we are revisiting. We already have an interconfederal one that defines the criteria of representation, in the meantime it would be appropriate that the employers’ associations defined their criteria of representation; we have already and say that the representation of the trade union organizations is based on the members and the votes – it reiterates -, it is to perfect that agreement and we are doing it together with the association datoriali”. For the number one of the Cgil, Maurizio Landini, the government “is discussing a decree without discussing with the social partners, it is the umpteenth thing that he did also in the other 1 May and it does not seem that there were particularly important results for those who work. So they should learn about experience, it would be better if they stopped for a moment.” Quality work, therefore, which also needs training. Confcommercio, in fact, through research conducted in collaboration with the University of Rome Tre, launches an alarm on the lack of workers in the tertiary sector. In 2026, according to research conducted in collaboration with the University of Rome Tre, they will missor 275 thousand workers, destined to become 470 thousand by 2035; the problem will no longer be quantitative only because people with the right profile must be found: today, in fact, 70% of the positions discovered depends on the lack of candidates and 30% on the lack of skills, but in 10 years the skill gap will rise up to almost 45%. The shortage of workers in the tertiary sector is a structural phenomenon mainly linked to demography, innovation and transformation of labor and consumption. Young people, women, foreign workers and seniors and apprentices are the basins in which it is possible to “recover” the missing workers. To counter this emergency, Confcommercio indicates some priority action lines. Among these, strengthening ITS, revising university courses to make them more consistent with the market, strengthening orientation and structured collaboration between schools and enterprises. On the side of enterprises: redesign of roles, investments in human capital, integration of artificial intelligence, development of continuous training programs, flexible certifications to counter the obsolescence of skills and valorization of the role of interprofessional peer funds. Within public policies: long-term planning and policies aimed at accompanying changes in work and supporting growth in the sector. “We believe that to fill this need there is a need to act on different fronts, first women’s work abundantly below European averages and then put women in the conditions of being able to access the world of work; to build an inclusive policy towards migrants who are a resource and not only a problem. Finally, the technological innovation that is seen as an element of the great increase in productivity, but must be introduced in enterprises through a concept that is to manage a particularly delicate transition”, explains Confcommercio’s vice-president, Mauro Lusetti.
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(ITALPRESS).
