Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
PALERMO – A concrete response to the cost of living and a decisive turn for Sicily’s long-term precarious workers. At a press conference this morning at the Sicilian Regional Assembly, MP Marianna Caronia (Noi Moderati) announced that an agreement had been reached with the Schifani government on the dispute involving ex Pip and ex Keller workers.
The provision increasing working hours to 36 hours a week (full time) for the roughly 2,000 workers affected will be officially inserted into the base text of the regional Stability Bill, which the executive will submit in the first week of November.
Hourly increase deferred for technical reasons: “The result is what matters”
Explaining why the measure was deferred to the upcoming corrective budget manoeuvre, the MP clarified that it had been an agreed choice based solely on technical grounds.
“For reasons related to the structure of the adjustment manoeuvre, the government asked to postpone the provision on the increase in hours,” Caronia explained. “This is a necessity I have shared, because what matters is the final result, not the procedural instrument. I thank the President of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, for personally taking on this solemn commitment, and the member of the municipal executive responsible for the economy, Alessandro Dagnino, for the productive work done.”
Also decisive in the negotiations was the input of Noi Moderati’s national political coordinator, Saverio Romano, whose political dialogue with the regional executive unblocked a process that had been awaited for years.
“A 30-year journey: dignity restored to 2,000 families”
The pool of ex Pip workers, created during the “Palermo Spring” of the Orlando administration and later absorbed by the Region in 2009 as a pool of beneficiaries, today represents about half the workforce of the SAS (Servizi Ausiliari Sicilia).
“With the Schifani government we had already secured their permanent status, but due to financial constraints they were on reduced-hour contracts with salaries of just over €800 a month, below the poverty line,” Caronia emphasised. “Giving these workers a full-time contract of 36 hours and a decent wage means closing a 30-year journey and breaking the chains that turn precarious work into a voting pool, finally setting them free.”
The commitment will be formalised by the regional government directly in the chamber at the ARS before the start of the budget session, with the MP expressing the hope that the model can be replicated for other pockets of precarious work on the island, starting with contractors at local authorities.
