PORT OF TARANTO, 06 MARCH, 2024 - This morning in Taranto, at the headquarters of the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea, The Apulia Region President Michele Emiliano, and the President of the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea, Sergio Prete, signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at defining a framework of interventions to boost and safeguard employment in the Taranto port area. Also present were Leo Caroli, chairman of the Regional Committee for the Monitoring of the Economic and Productive System and Crisis Areas (Comitato regionale per il Monitoraggio del Sistema Economico e Produttivo e delle Aree di Crisi , SEPAC), and Antonella Bisceglia, manager of the Crisis Areas Section of the Economic Development Department of the Apulia Region.
The Protocol - the result of the joint work carried out by the Training, Labour and Crisis Areas Sections of the Apulia Region, in conjunction with the Regional Committee for the Monitoring of the Economic and Productive System and Crisis Areas - responds to the need to identify a path of support for the 330 workers of the former concessionary company of the Port of Taranto, whose allowance due to the lack of employment authorisation is set to expire imminently (31-03-2024).
The agreement, which has a duration of 36 months, describes three priority areas of intervention: the definition of the technical-legal framework for the provision of training activities aimed at upgrading the skills of workers, whose prolonged inactivity makes it difficult for them to re-enter the labour market; the updating of the Regional Register of Professionals of Apulia, in line with the Training Needs Plan drafted by the Authority in 2022; and the implementation of an Evaluation Document of Competencies of workers.
“The professional training and requalification of the 330 workers in charge of the Taranto Port Workers agency in Taranto”, said the Apulia Region President Michele Emiliano, “represent a necessity and an urgency for guiding them towards a new employment, also in view of the development guidelines of the Taranto Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea. These workers need to learn to perform new activities and different tasks, which are not included in the regional repertoire of professional figures. For this reason, the Apulia Region and the Port Network Authority sign a Memorandum of Understanding committing them to innovative and specific initiatives for targeted active labour policies, and encourage the extension of expiring social protection measures and guide agency workers towards new employment”.
“The work to be done is crucial”, Emiliano continued, “and that is why I have urged the Minister of Enterprises, Mr. Urso, the Minister of Labour, Mr. Calderone, to extend by one year the expiration date of the TPW agency, which has worked well in the past. I hope that the government, in a very difficult social situation such as that of the Taranto industrial area, will support us and realise the importance of this gesture of understanding and rebirth of the professionalism of these workers, in view of the many investments that we hope will arrive as soon as possible in the port area and, more generally, in the entire industrial area of Taranto”.
“The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Apulia Region,” said the President of the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea Sergio Prete, “creates new virtuous paths, aimed on the one hand at the recognition in the Apulia Region's Register of port professions and qualifications and, on the other, at the commitment to co-financing for training activities aimed at updating and upgrading the skills of workers suspended for various reasons from the world of work, providing new opportunities for re-employment. For this reason, the Apulia Region and the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea are strengthening institutional collaboration, particularly in support of workers in the port basin, also in view of the new investments and implementation of the sustainable energy sector that the Network Authority has identified in its development strategy”.
For the purposes of the aims of the Protocol, the Apulia Region and the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea agree to establish an Intervention Steering Committee that will periodically monitor the outcomes of the interventions implemented in conjunction with the regional SEPAC Committee. The Steering Committee will include representatives from the Apulia Region, the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea, ARPAL Puglia, the most representative Union Organisations, Confindustria Puglia, the port logistics category, and the Ministry of University and Research. The Committee will also be in charge of defining the content of the Framework Agreement for Active Labour Policies in the Taranto port area, in which the implementation modalities of the agreement will be identified, with established procedures and timelines, in line with the needs of the Government and the Port Network Authority.
“The Memorandum of Understanding signed today”, said Leo Caroli, chairman of the Regional Committee for the Monitoring of the Economic and Productive System, and Crisis Areas, “truly represents an extraordinary act, that is, outside the ordinary management of active labour policies. We’ll introduce experimental innovations, inspired by other areas, able to intercept the labour and labour market transformations, especially in port areas. The 330 people still waiting for employment must make themselves ready to face these transformations. For this, the Apulia Region is committed both in terms of organising and financing measures. It does so on an ongoing basis, also through a Steering Committee that, together with trade unions, will guide these activities, including the constant modification and updating of the regional register of occupations. Today's Agreement also sets the stage for a renewal of the agency that is to be the container within which active policies are to be implemented. The agency is a national competence and, within its framework, workers will be able to receive an allowance and that will accompany them during the training and requalification phase. In short, all the conditions are in place so that for the next 12 months the goal of accompanying and re-employing these workers can be achieved”.
On the sidelines of the conference, the Regional Councillor for Training and Labour Sebastiano Leo said that “the Protocol is a further sign of attention to the Taranto complex industrial crisis area by the Apulia Region. We have shared and endorsed the request, also coming from trade unions, for updating and upgrading the professional skills of the 330 workers of the Agency for the port employment and professional retraining, called “Taranto Port Workers Agency”. These are 330 workers who receive a specific allowance called “IMA”, which the government wants to suspend as of next March 31. The need for targeted intervention, as has already been done for workers benefiting from the zero-hour worked redundancy fund in the Taranto area, goes in this direction, that of supporting, training and requalifying people in fragile employment conditions, all the more so when the national government fails in its commitments”.
“This agreement”, added the Councillor for Economic Development Alessandro Delli Noci, “represents a virtuous example of a policy that looks at safeguarding employment as a condition for development. The strategic plans for the development of the Taranto port area, outlined by the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea, become the trajectory on which to set training and requalification paths by putting in place measures not of mere assistance but of true renewal of the workforce.”