Regione Siciliana: Assessore Messina halts negotiations on employee contract renewal.

Last Updated: October 19, 2023

The regional counselor for Personnel, Andrea Messina, denies the Aran’s claims and puts a stop to negotiations for the renewal of the contract for the employees of the Sicilian Region. Messina, a member of the Cuffarian area, disputes in a two-page letter most of the points that the commissioner of the Agency for Collective Bargaining in the public sector, Accursio Gallo, was discussing with the unions. According to Messina, they do not reflect the guidelines that the government had sent to the Aran itself. In summary, Gallo would have proposed a broader agreement to the unions (on individual increases and reclassification) than what the government says it can support. Although Gallo had reopened the negotiations, obtaining approval from the unions based on a previous meeting in which Schifani had presented new possibilities for agreement. For this reason, all unions had returned to the table after a year. Now Messina’s stop, a few days before the reopening of negotiations, creates great agitation among the unions. And it reopens the divisions that had formed between a part of the independent unions (skeptical about signing the contract) and the majority of the other unions, in favor of reaching agreements. “The letter from counselor Messina, which asks the Aran to review the draft of the new contract for the employees of the Region, presented to the unions on October 17, meets our requests: it is indeed an unacceptable proposal and we hope that this will give new impetus to the negotiations,” said Giuseppe Badagliacca and Angelo Lo Curto from Siad-Csa-Cisal. “Already at the meeting last Tuesday – Badagliacca and Lo Curto continue – we had highlighted that the renewal of the contract must go hand in hand with the reclassification of personnel and that the draft presented by the Aran had not taken into account all the indications from the government. We hope that this will put the negotiation back on track to provide concrete answers to regional employees on organizational positions, allowances, and salary advancements.”