“Today we are placing the future of 300 Reggio families at the center of the political agenda. We are not just talking about numbers, but about people, workers who for years have represented an economic pillar for our territory: today we fought, and we will continue to do so with firm and clear opposition, to any procedure that reduces employment, circumvents the social clause or violates the principle of territoriality for these workers”. Thus the Forza Italia municipal councilor Antonino Maiolino comments on the outcome of today’s VII Labor Commission, which saw the hearing of the unions and the presentation of a resolution, signed by the blue council group composed of Federico Milia, Roberto Vizzari, Antonino Zimbalatti, Saverio Anghelone and Antonino Maiolino himself, for the protection of the 300 Enel customer care employees operating in Reggio Calabria.
“Any hypothesis of forced transfer or reduction of staff disguised as ‘digital efficiency’ is unacceptable – declares Maiolino – it is clear that failure to respect the place of work is equivalent to an indirect dismissal which we cannot allow”.
Furthermore, we will not allow the use of automation and artificial intelligence, presented as an efficiency tool, to lead to a reduction in employment or a worsening of working conditions: the priority is that the digitalisation processes are a support to the service, and not a pretext to cut off 300 people from Reggio, fathers and mothers of families”.
For this reason we asked the Mayor and the Council to activate a formal dialogue with Enel, aimed at obtaining binding guarantees on the full maintenance of the 300 jobs in the Municipality of Reggio Calabria and to transmit the resolution discussed today in the Commission to the Regional Council of Calabria, urging the opening of a regional dispute on the customer care and CRM/BPO sector, with the aim of activating active employment policy tools, promoting professional retraining plans and protect the employment centers present in the Calabrian territory”, specifies the councilor.
Which concludes: “We then committed the Council to urging the national government and the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy to convene the national crisis table of the CRM/BPO sector, to govern the digitalisation processes while safeguarding employment. These workers cannot be left alone because the dignity of Reggio families is not, and will never be, a bargaining chip or object of negotiation.”