A Council of Ministers for Labor Law meeting on May 1 “is not a lack of respect, it is a sign and I expected a ‘well done’”. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni immediately underlined this at the meeting with union leaders from CGIL, CISL, UIL and Ugl convened at Palazzo Chigi this evening, which took place amid heightened tensions. “It was a way-she underlined during the meeting-of saying ‘we are here and we are all here’, an outstretched hand, an attempt at dialogue and joint work, because I think we are in agreement on reducing the tax burden”. Meloni explained to the union leaders that “tomorrow’s CDM will take useful measures for the world of work, which we vary in a symbolic day and in which we consider useful a preventive discussion with the union organizations. out of the nomination, but one more sign that the government considers dialogue with the social partners to be very important, at a particular time when we have many challenges to face for our Nation. Today’s meeting is therefore not exhaustive with regard to our dialogue, also because the process of provision that we will approve tomorrow will be quite long”.
What the prime minister hopes for is “a serious and constructive dialogue, both on work and on all the subjects that we will address: Pnrr, RepowerEU, corrections in the way resources are spent, salary policy and the consequent fight against inflation, reforms, which we will address in the coming weeks. The government’s priority is to ease the tax burden on labor costs. We had already given a signal with the budget law, maintaining the two cutoff points already decided by the previous government for wages below 35,000 euros and adding one more point In tomorrow’s measures there are also significant rules for safety at work, this is also a good way to celebrate May 1. We reached 6% of the reduction below 35,000 euros and 7% below 25,000 euros, until the end of the year” . And, finally, “we are reforming the Citizenship Income, to distinguish who can work from who cannot”.
But the unions do not give discounts and the leader of the UIL, Pierpaolo Bombardieri, brought a precarious worker with him to the meeting, because precisely this issue is at the center of the unions’ concerns. The 36-year-old woman, in a precarious job for seven years, stressed that “she has no stability, I can’t plan anything in my life, I don’t have the ability to plan, to start a family”. The meeting took place in a climate of tension with the CGIL, CISL and UIL. In the afternoon, the prime minister defined as incomprehensible the words of the CGIL secretary, Maurizio Landini, about the Council of Ministers convened on May 1st to enact labor measures. Our commitment, on this day of celebration, the workers and the responses they await”. Landini had defined “a bit of arrogance and offense to the workers to convene a Council of Ministers on Labor Day”. : “Is it still possible to criticize the Prime Minister or should we pack our bags?” it is an operation to counterbalance the work of the CGIL, CISL and UIL: do you want to bet that tomorrow there will be a government press conference at the same time as the rallies of the three general secretaries?”.
The work decree that will symbolically go to the Council of Ministers tomorrow, on the occasion of May 1st, introduces some substantial innovations. Above all, the reduction of the tax burden on medium-low incomes, which according to the last project for the five-year period from July 1 to November 30, 2023 will increase another four percentage points compared to the previously forecast 2 percentage points, the abolition of of Citizenship and a modification of the dignity decree of former Minister Luigi Di Maio that had shortened the duration of fixed-term contracts that will now be extended to 24 months, even without just cause. Precisely on this point the unions are most critical. Finally, it raises the threshold for payments with vouchers, from 10 to 15 thousand euros, in particular for companies in the fairs, congresses and events sector.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
