ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

At the beginning of the year representatives from service companies and politics met in Rome to discuss what can be done to tackle employment and fight the black economy. Anna Garbagna reports.

“Concentrate on the service sector, fight against the unofficial economy and relaunch employment.” That was the message that emerged during the round table organised by FISE ANIP (the association which represents the integrated cleaning services and multiservices sector within Confindustria) to present the proposal framework for regulation of services.

In his opening speech the president of ANIP, Claudia Giuliani, explained the proposed regulation and the main critical situations experienced by the sector encompassing 23,000 firms and 550,000 employees.

Gioacchino Alfano, senator of the PDL party, highlighted the need to support local authority finances through suitable means of money  collection, freeing resources for services which are particularly strategic for the economy of southern Italy.

Luciano Ciocchetti, vice president of Lazio Region, expressed his approval for the proposal made by the association to create a proper identity card for the services sector, differentiating services from public works and highlighting opportunities linked to outsourcing processes for services.

Beatrice Lorenzin, a leading representative of the party Popolo delle Libertà, identified that in Italy  the attention is too often concentrated on the production sector, despite the fact that services represent the main occupational pool. She also highlighted  the need to start round tables with service companies in order to examine in depth the proposals being put forward by the association.

MP Claudio Bucci, representative of Partito Socialista Italiano, spoke about the problem of the lowest possible bid.

Emilio Ciarlo (Partito Democratico, responsible for foreign affairs), after reminding delegates of the commitments already undertaken by his political party regarding delays in payments  and the acknowledgement of the EU Directive, shared the need to improve the Code of Contracts to account for the details of services. He also stated his full availability to analyse the matter in further meetings with the association.

Senator Giovanni Pistorio (UDC) declared the importance to account for the issue of southern Italy, making the economy of this area of the country more competitive.

Claudia Giuliani closed the meeting expressing great appreciation to all the political parties who participated, committing the association to proceed in the debate, as requested by all the political parties so each technical question regarding timetable, salaries, unofficial economy etc, can be dealt with in the correct department according to the different sector of activity.

“We can only express great satisfaction and appreciation for the attention demonstrated by all the political parties on the issues concerning the service sector which have been illustrated during this meeting,” commented Giuseppe Gherardelli, secretary of Anip. “We are ready to play our  part,  following up and deepening the debate, as requested by all the members of Parliament, with the awareness that adequate attention to the service sector could contribute greatly to tackling the unofficial economy and boosting employment.”