Rome, 6 August (Adnkronos/Labitalia) – “At the end of 2023, during the presentation of our Social Budget, Senator Durigon said that 2024 would be the year of the reform of the patronages. The patronages are entities supervised by the Ministry of Labor, regulated by a law that is 152 of 2001, a law that obviously carries with it all these years and that necessarily needs maintenance. However, Senator Durigon’s words have not been followed by facts”. This was stated in an interview with Adnkronos/Labitalia by Michele Pagliaro, president of Inca, the Cgil patronage.
“We – he underlines – had a meeting at the ministry on February 20, convened directly by Minister Calderone. On that occasion, we were told that the system would be simplified, therefore not a more comprehensive review, but even this simplification that would be needed is currently blocked”.
“Simplification – he warns – is an extremely important element because all the activity of the patronages is checked; our practices are checked one by one by the inspectors and this obviously takes up a lot of time. With the use of technology, by connecting the liquidation provision, the practice and the telematic patronage mandate, the activity could be inspected and checked with a simple click, which would drastically reduce the inspection times and the duties of the inspectors. The same people in charge of ensuring safety in the workplace in a country where on average three workers die every day. If this were done, it would be a revolution”.
“As a system of patronages, we fear neither the digital transition nor artificial intelligence. Among other things, during the pandemic it was the patronages of Ce.Pa (Acli, Inas, Inca and Ital) who called for the introduction of the ‘telematic patronage mandate’, precisely because we felt the need, as we have always done, to make ourselves useful and available to the community precisely when the main public institutions of the country were closing their offices to the public”.
“Once the pandemic was over – he underlines – we felt the need to work to renew the agreements between INPS, INAIL and patronages: the first with INPS was renewed after 12 years, on January 11, 2023; the one with INAIL on March 6, 2024, again after 12 years. Two protocols, I can say, that have technological innovation at their core; a theme that does not worry us as long as it is shared, coherent and above all capable of improving the quality of services. Our network, together with that of the most important Italian patronages in general, is, first of all, a proximity network, a real physical network and not a virtual one while that of important public institutions, thanks to technological innovation on the one hand but also the drastic reduction in investments in personnel on the other, has been drastically reduced to the point of being, unfortunately, perceived as very distant if not absent from the citizens”.
“Hence – explains President Pagliaro – the need to fill the void to provide quick answers and solutions to citizens’ problems; a role that the Italian patronage system will be able to play without any difficulty, also addressing in perspective the problems related to complex practices and those for the emergence of the numerous ‘Unexpressed Rights’, also working to develop a comparison, today in its initial stages, both with the Anci (National Association of Italian Municipalities) and with the ‘Conference of the Regions’. A comparison that has already aroused much interest from our interlocutors, which makes me say, as far as we are concerned, that the digital transition as well as artificial intelligence do not represent a risk but real opportunities”.
“We can say that the pandemic is a bit behind us. Inca is returning to normality also because let’s not forget that the patronage has always worked during the Covid period. Inca, in fact, like the entire system of Italian patronages, has reacted very well”.
“During the Covid emergency – he explains – we were able to guarantee services even when important public institutions closed remote work. We were able to change our habits, our organizational methods in a very short time. Thanks to the introduction of the telematic sponsorship mandate, we never failed to provide support to millions of citizens who needed it in that rather complicated phase”.
“The latest data on Inca’s activity – he recalls – certified by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, relating to the year 2022, have seen us grow in percentage terms by 2.25%, going from 15.16% to 17.41% of the market share. A significant leap forward which, among other things, has interrupted an inexorable decline that lasted, as much as, 12 years. From the first information regarding 2023, which we exchanged with the other patronages Acli, Inas and Ital, the trend towards an increase in the overall volume of activity should be equally positive, as are those released by Inps for the first four months of 2024. These are all positive signals that make us think that Inca, 80 years after its birth, will continue to remain the leader in individual protection, the first patronage in the country”.
“In Italy, there are social security and welfare protections, but we can define them as significantly reduced. From a social security point of view, pension reform has certainly become a taboo subject that no one talks about. And today we are faced with a situation where pensions are reduced both in number and also in quantity and in the amount of the exercises”.
“We have had – he underlines – a decrease of about 38,000 pensions compared to last year, a year in which they had already decreased by over 21,000. While as regards the amount we are faced with a situation in which with the contributory system the checks are reduced by about 16%”.
“As far as assistance is concerned – he warns – the situation is also complicated here. This is a country that invests less. To be concrete, during the entire phase of the citizen’s income, about 28 billion were invested, about 7 billion per year. Today with the Adi, the inclusion allowance, we are at a significantly lower figure, about 2 billion. Faced with an instrument that is certainly not up to the task of dealing with the social condition of this country”.
