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Mayor Sala: “Public resources must be used with transparency, effectiveness and economy and always in compliance with the principles of safeguarding employment, fair bargaining and fair competition”

Tajani: "Let's put in place a tool to protect workers in contract changes, so that the quality of work is always a qualifying point of the city's development"

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Milan, February 26 2021 – The municipal administration places attention towards workers and the protection of "Good work" at the center of its action. The Memorandum of Understanding for the quality of work in municipal contracts and the fight against lowest-cost tenders which undermine the protection of workers and free competition was signed today. To sign the agreement, a Palazzo Marino, with the Mayor Giuseppe Sala and the councilor for Labor Policies, Productive Activities and Commerce, Cristina Tajani, the General Secretary of the CGIL of Milan, Massimo Bonini, with Carlo Gerla, General Secretary of the CISL of Milan Metropoli, and Danilo Margaritella, General Secretary of the UIL of Milan and Lombardy.

"In the use of public resources it is necessary to guarantee maximum transparency, effectiveness, efficiency and cost-effectiveness – declared the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala –. However, complying with these priority principles in public procurement does not authorize the derogation of others, from the protection of regular work and secure in respect of bargaining and fair competition. It is precisely this that establishes the memorandum of understanding that we sign today with the trade unions, as evidence of a fruitful collaboration and sharing of intentions: the will, commitment and responsibility for Milan Public Administration to safeguard the 'good work' of all those who work for the Municipality, including in contracts and in investee companies. Once again, Milan implements a good practice and helps to indicate the way forward in terms of work ".

"With this protocol – comments councilor Tajani – we are not only committed to safeguarding employment in contract changes, but we establish the principle that those who work for the Municipality of Milan, even through contracts, should not be oppressed by inadequate contracts, restrictive hours, inconsistent salaries. Achieving this objective without burdening procedures, respecting Italian and European regulations, the needs of businesses and the economic constraints of institutions has required a great deal of analysis, reporting and monitoring which has been carried out for years with the trade union organizations we carry out within the Labor Market Observatory. The result is a model that today we bring to the attention of the city, of our investee companies, of private companies so that the quality of work is a qualifying point of the city's development. Furthermore, issues that require the attention of national politics, where we want to identify standards that are both enforceable and guarantors of the dignity of work and propulsive for our economy".

"This protocol – comment the representatives of CGIL, CISL and UIL, Bonini, Gerla and Margaritella – updates the one signed in 2018, in light of the regulatory changes that have occurred and the intense negotiation activity on contracts and tenders that we have carried out in the latter years with the Municipality, an activity thanks to which we have protected several hundred workers. The new agreement confirms the guarantees in the very delicate phase of changing contracts thanks to the social clause which provides for the maintenance of jobs, rights and economic conditions; furthermore, it strengthens the principles of transparency, always favoring open procedures, of quality (and not price) as a criterion for the Administration's choices and of maximum protection of legality with the limitation of subcontracting; it also introduces some protections for the so-called intellectual procurement', sometimes a sector of exploitation of young professionals; establishes that the national category contract envisaged for the type of tasks contracted is applied to the personnel involved. It also establishes that the Municipality will take an active part in promoting the application of this agreement to the investee companies. However, the value of this protocol goes well beyond the Milanese territory and intends to act as a model on a national scale, particularly at a time when procurement rules are under discussion: these changes must never be to the detriment of workers' rights".

The protocol arises from the shared desire of the parties to identify, as a priority, the objective of social responsibility in procurement and in the management of services by the Administration. A signature aimed at promoting respect for negotiations, regular and safe work as well as fair competition but above all guaranteeing continuity of work for workers.

Specifically, the protocol intends to discourage, where possible, the use by the Administration of tenders and contracts focused on the maximum economic reduction by encouraging the adoption of the criterion of the most economically advantageous offer as a value system in choosing the successful tenderers. The overall quality of the offer is therefore considered as rewarding, especially when it guarantees compliance with the national and territorial contracts in force, in the individual reference sectors, and, in the case of changes in management, contracts or services, priority is given the absorption and use of staff previously employed to carry out the same tasks, thus guaranteeing, in addition to job continuity for workers and the continuation of acquired rights, the economic treatment and the quality of the services provided.

The protocol also promotes less use of subcontracts and sub-concessions which often impoverish the work and effectively reduce the responsibilities of the client and the contracting companies. A practice that often turns out to cause problems in terms of contributory regularity and security.

Again to protect work continuity and encourage "good employment", the protocol provides, where possible, for the stipulation of procurement or service contracts lasting no less than 4 years as good practice for the Administration, aimed at encouraging, throughout the metropolitan area, the spread of qualified and non-precarious work.

Finally, a register of suppliers, executors and contractors is established and implemented by the Administration, including a list of companies that have reports of previous employment of manpower in irregular ways or that have resorted to illegitimate forms of intermediation for the recruitment of personnel to the in order to promote transparency and legality.

The signatories of the protocol are also authors of a common notice addressed to the Government in which the parties request that the same protections are also implemented in any changes to the procurement laws: in this historical phase, European resources can and must represent an opportunity for development fair and sustainable for all and the rules that indicate how these resources will be spent are fundamental so that they also represent an opportunity for workers.

The text of the protocol signed.