Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
MESSINA – The regional government’s commitment to tackling precarious work has won praise from the ruling majority, but it has also reopened the debate on uniform service coverage across the island. Bernardette Grasso, the Forza Italia regional MP, commented on the regional executive’s recent achievements while urging broader action to support other groups of workers.
Grasso expressed appreciation for the approach taken by Governor Renato Schifani on stabilising ex-Pip workers in Palermo on 36-hour contracts and resolving the ex-Keller dispute. However, she stressed the need for an organic, balanced approach that avoids territorial disparities.
From local authority stabilisation to the case of SAS workers
Recalling her work during the previous legislature as the regional minister for local authorities—a period in which the stabilisation of long-term precarious local authority workers on 24-hour contracts began after three decades of waiting—the blue-party MP highlighted the urgency of valuing staff already on public payrolls:
“I commend President Schifani for his commitment to stabilising workers from the ex-Pip pool and resolving the ex-Keller dispute. I know full well what it means to give dignity and certainty to thousands of families. However, I believe the time has come for a comprehensive vision that no longer focuses on individual categories.
The significant resources available to the Region must also be used to increase the hours for precarious local authority workers stabilised on 24-hour contracts and for SAS workers.”
Focus on the minor islands and equal treatment
In her remarks, the MP from Messina placed particular emphasis on the needs of island and peripheral communities, calling for no disparity between services in the regional capital and the rest of the island:
“I am thinking in particular of SAS workers who provide essential services on the minor islands and are still stuck on 30-hour weeks. They, like the Pip workers, deserve pay parity and therefore the same hours.
I am confident in the sensitivity of the government and President Schifani. Politics cannot focus solely on services in Palermo: it would be to the detriment of those guaranteed every day by local authorities across Sicily. All workers, without any geographical distinction, have the right to the same dignity in work and pay.”
