After crossing the Sahara from Africa to Lampedusa in the summer of 2006, I infiltrated the tomato pickers in the Foggia region. We were all slaves, the property of the corporals. When they paid us, they promised twenty euros a day to work from sunrise to sunset: they earn roughly one euro an hour and fifty cents clean, so this was a net salary as there were strictly undeclared wages. However, seventeen years later, it’s crazy to see that tourism entrepreneurs, one of the most active sectors of the Italian economy today, are using the same money to compensate our young and old: three euros gross per hour. In fact, little more than a slave’s net salary in 2006.

When the exploitation of agricultural workers scandal broke out after my journalistic investigation, the government of the time set up a commission to investigate the employment of illegal workers, mobilized the unions, and even the European Parliament devoted several sessions to the issue. It seems that the principles of equality among citizens must finally prevail. And that’s exactly what happened, except for a certain period of development. Equality is respected. But on the contrary, today these wages from illegal hiring no longer only concern less fortunate workers, they have also affected other important supply chains of our economy.

Convicted workers 3 euros gross per hour

Responding to job offers from dozens of hotel and restaurant owners and pretending to be unemployed, the dramatic investigations of these days by Christian Donelli, Charlotte Matteini and Chiara Tadini should also draw the attention of Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè. He has been an entrepreneur in the industry for a long time. As well as the intervention of trade organizations. Silence instead. As if everything was normal. It is as if the national recovery and resilience plan foresees the exploitation of workers who are forced to make up for the damage of the pandemic. But what is their fault? It is misleading to think of this as a symptom of the crisis. The testimonies on the field suffice to deny this. Chiara Tadini writes that it’s 800 euros a month, but only 400 euros goes into the envelope: “Some of the compensation will be given outside the envelope, you know how these things work – they tell Christian Donelli –. It’s good for both of us.”

Bonuses, government treats. And now the recovery of the undeclared economy: if staff choose to pay it in envelopes rather than declare it to the tax authorities, it looks very successful. It’s happening from the Romagna Riviera to Parma Emilia, from North to South, what more do they want? Do they want the lives of our girls and boys? Do they want their future? “There is no worse nightmare than being poor, you work twelve hours a day: because you are a prisoner – says one of our readers – a prisoner of your false contract”.

Attorney Tambasco: “Elasticity error”

How did we get so low? “The causes of literally starving fees are both political and technological,” responds Domenico Tambasco, a Milan lawyer and author of the “Il lavoro harassment” handbook. On the one hand, consider the labor policies of the last three decades: flexible securityIt had promised workers flexibility and security through the myth of the ‘free in the job market’ worker to negotiate the best terms, driven globally by the OECD and the International Monetary Fund. It actually turned out to be a clever lie. Under the banner of reforms of the last decades deregulation (prolongation of flexible and fixed-term forms of work, weakening of reinstatements in illegitimate layoffs, legitimation of demotion for organizational reasons) is in fact the corresponding reduction in wages, in line with the collapse of workers’ bargaining power and market laws” .

There deregulation later moved on to the Labor divisions of the courts. “Yes, the circle has come full circle with the loss of power of national collective bargaining, with policies aimed at deterring the use of liberalization and judicial protection at the corporate bargaining level,” explains Tambasco. Consider the rule that makes it much more frequent that workers are ordered to pay litigation costs. On the other hand, however, lately technology, the most extreme form of artificial intelligence, is eroding more and more of human labor, which has become more and more affordable”.

However, not all jobs can be replaced by artificial intelligence. Yet the most human tasks, such as the activities of cooks, waiters, and also workers, are those that come under the most pressure: what can be done? “To act on causes, by changing the political direction and putting a reverse gear on the policies of the United States,” says Domenico Tambasco. flexibility work on the one hand. On the other hand, face the realities of the future, which will become more and more automatic, and I think seriously consider the solution of a universal minimum income”.

The author of “Abusive work” concludes, “If there is money to finance billion-dollar wars, there is much more reason to free millions from slavery of necessity.” Under these conditions, there will be personnel shortages next summer. And those who cannot do without it will accept the wages of starvation: they are doomed twelve hours a day to stay poor.