Time.news – Ita’s customer service management has been assigned to Covisian, a decision that casts shadows on the future of Almaviva and its 570 employees. And the municipality of Palermo, the city where Almaviva is based, and the unions are asking for clarification. Meanwhile, the company has addressed an urgent request to the ministers Orlando and Giorgetti.
Ita has identified the Covisian company as the supplier of the customer assistance management service, at the end of the competitive procedure launched in recent weeks. The choice leaves Almaviva on the ground and the employees of the call center that handled reservations for Alitalia in fear of losing their jobs.
Ita, reads a note, believes “the Customer Center area is a fundamental element in the relationship with the customer for which it is important to ensure maximum efficiency and sustainability. For this reason, in choosing the supplier, the the need to provide this service from Italy and the flexibility in managing the curve of telephone calls volumes according to the company’s needs from this initial phase of transition to the phase of full operation, all offering digital and innovative solutions “.
The company writes to ministers Orlando and Giorgetti
“A notice of guarantee in the institutional setting of the interested parties, in order to avoid the consequences of non-compliance with the social clause in the change of contract for the call center of Ita (Italia Trasporti Aereo), which puts at immediate risk the employment continuity of hundreds of workers in Palermo and Rende, who have been working on the same customer assistance service for Alitalia for twenty years. Because job protection cannot admit of discontinuity “.
This is the urgent request made by the Almaviva Contact company to the Minister of Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, and to the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, Andrea Orlando, after learning that “Ita, an entirely public company, has assigned the tender for the management of contact center services, replacing those still held by Alitalia, without applying the social clause envisaged for the outsourced call center sector which, based on the sector National Collective Labor Agreement and the law, recognizes the right to continue the relationship of work with any new supplier of the same activities “.
The reaction of the municipality of Palermo
The reaction of the municipality of Palermo was not long in coming: “It is surprising that Ita, in the official press releases to announce this afternoon the new service provider for the management of customer assistance, did not mention the occupational safeguards provided for by our legislation”, declared the mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, and the councilor for work, Giovanna Marano. “We are eager to understand – they continue – if the professionalism guaranteed so far by the hundreds of Almaviva workers in Palermo is contrasted with that of Alitalia’s staff in extraordinary administration. We ask the Minister of Labor, Andrea Orlando, to take this serious and very delicate situation and we ask him that the occupational safeguard clause be exercised as a matter of priority “.
Protests by trade unions
“Today we learned that ITA’s customer service management has been assigned to Covisian,” said the secretary general. Slc CGIL Palermo Marcello Cardella and the general secretary CGIL Palermo Mario Ridulfo. “In the official press releases of the new transport company – they continue – unfortunately no reference is made to the personnel who until now, on behalf of Almavaviva, carried out this delicate and important service with great dedication and professionalism. Our concerns remain and are strengthened. for the future of the workers of Palermo. We therefore consider the opening in the next few days of an institutional table, already appropriately requested by the national secretariats, to be decisive. A table that must give concrete answers to workers guaranteeing them employment continuity. ITA is a public company and as such, it cannot escape the application of the social clauses provided for by law and by the CCNL TLC “.
“It is not conceivable to think of losing 570 jobs in Palermo at a time when the crisis is suffocating our territory. The Almaviva dispute should be addressed at a ministerial table, because the future of so many families is at stake. it had never happened that a tender of this type was managed in this way and that we learned of the outcome in the press. What is worrying is that in the official Ita notes we continue to find no guarantees for the future of Palermo workers “. This was stated by Leonardo La Piana general secretary of CISL Palermo Trapani and Eliana Puma Rsu Almaviva and Fistel Cisl Sicilia call center coordinator, after learning that the management of Ita’s customer service, until now managed by Almaviva Contact, has been assigned to Covisian.
“Ita begins its existence in the worst possible way. We are at the side of all workers who have lived for too long the uncertainty about their future which makes any long-term life project impossible. What is worrying is that in the official notes ITA we continue to find no guarantees for the future of Palermo workers “. Yesterday afternoon the national secretariats of the trade unions of Cgil Cisl Uil, again requested a ministerial table.
“A table that must give concrete answers to workers, guaranteeing them employment continuity. Ita is a public company and as such cannot escape the application of the social clauses provided for by law and by the national telecommunications contract. Do not waste any more time, the workers of Palermo have been managing Alitalia customer service since it was born, for 20 years. And today, even if without any certainty for their future, they continue to manage the customers of the old company with professionalism and courtesy. This city cannot ‘to afford further occupational bleeding “.
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