“I believe that the conditions exist, provided of course also to build the conditions for a consensus between the social forces because it is clear that it cannot be a choice that is somehow made by bypassing Confindustria and the trade union.” Thus the Minister of Labor Andrea Orlando on the possibility of introducing the minimum wage, interviewed by PresaDiretta in the episode ‘The minimum wage’, broadcast tomorrow Monday 14 February at 21.20 on Rai3. “But – he adds – one thing must also be said that this choice will force us to bypass Confindustria and trade union if in the meantime the bargaining mechanisms are not reviewed “.
“Bargaining in our country – underlines Orlando – has strongly weakened over the years because there is no criterion that defines representation. A few weeks ago, for example, there was a case of twenty companies that signed a contract with a phantom trade union organization that was below the contract of that sector ”. They are called pirate contracts and “they are almost always on the downside,” says the minister. “And this is one of the reasons that has seen our country retreat in wages compared to other European countries”.
“We use the minimum wage – he continues – to stimulate the contractual mechanism, to ensure that even in areas where the union fails to reach people are guaranteed, as is happening in Germany”. And when asked whether with this legislature we can reach a minimum wage by law, the minister stresses that “it is complicated because of course this is a government and a majority that has very articulated positions”.
In the PresaDiretta reportage it turns out that in the face of a certain number of contracts, between subordinates and parasubordinates – there are also 10, 12, 14 different types of cases – within them there are crazy abuses. On this disposable use of workers Orlando says: “There are small businesses that use these tools because they are unable to compete on other levels. And yet there are also large players who download their costs onto the supply chain. There is a very specific plan which is to compress wages in a range of suppliers and in this way impoverish, in this case, both companies and workers ”.
And this fragmented fabric of the labor market is also the cause of all these deaths at work. “Absolutely – says the minister – and also the congruity of the contract used with respect to the activity carried out. When you go to inspect construction sites, you will also find contracts that do not correspond to the type of work you are doing. I have proposed, I hope that this rule will soon become law, that for example 110 percent, the disbursement is subject to the fact that one has employees with contracts that are placed in that supply chain, because otherwise we find people who are trained to work in logistics, in the field of services, apprentices, and you find them on the scaffolding, and then you say why accidents happen, unfortunately this too is part of the problem “.