Quite normal that in an economic maneuver in Italy you can find a bit of everything. In fact, maneuvering has always been considered the only safe train to arrive at the station. Too bad that this time the maneuver wants to see only FS trains arrive at their destination. With all due respect to the winds of liberalization (soon downgraded to breezes) that should accompany the maneuver in question.
Maneuver, currently under reading in the Senate, which in article 8 - the one relating to the reviled "freedom of dismissal", aimed at reforming the labor bargaining system - saw the approval of an amendment presented by three majority senators: Massimo Garavaglia , Gianvittore Vaccari (both Northern League supporters) and Paolo Tancredi (secretary of the Budget Commission of the Senate, PDL share). A provision, the latter, in stark contrast not only with the liberalizing intentions of the maneuver, but even against the very meaning of article 8, which seeks to give a greater role to company agreements than national ones.
So what will happen to the railway sector? Through an amendment to legislative decree 188/2003 (“Implementation of directives 2001/12/EC, 2001/13/EC and 2001/14/EC on railway matters”) – already attempted during a Budget Law two years ago – all operators private individuals in the sector will be forced to choose an already existing collective agreement for the sector, including that of the State Railways, which however expired in 2007, and which does not mention high speed. All this to the detriment of any agreements, warmly welcomed by the union, already signed or in the process of being closed.
A case in point is the agreement signed by NTV – the high-speed company led by Giuseppe Sciarrone, headed by the French SNCF and the Italian partners Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Diego Della Valle and the Neapolitan entrepreneur Gianni Punzo. The agreement provides for increases in productivity and adequate remuneration systems for young people trained and placed on the market, together with an additional "welfare" plan to the salary made up of supplementary pension and health care, personalized on the basis of the individual's needs and marital status. So nothing to do. At the moment.
If the maneuver were to actually go through without further modifications, the operators will therefore have to opt for the national contract for road and tram drivers or for the FS contract. The result will be an increase in the cost of freight traffic – estimated at between 20% in the first case and 30% in the second – with the probable contraction not only of the market, but also of the number of railway undertakings, and the inevitable (further) reduction of the competition. And this precisely in a period which, after the severe crisis of 2008, was starting to show the light with even significant numbers in terms of hiring, a rare case in the sector.
Giacomo Di Patrizi, president of FerCargo, the association that brings together private rail freight transport companies, is "incredulous". "I can't understand what shock some senators gave birth to this incredible amendment which on the one hand seems to clash with the objectives of the financial maneuver (freer market) and on the other it appears to everyone to be out of touch with time and which abruptly slows down the already complex process of liberalization of the sector in our country. This is a proposal that will have no other effect than to close the market even more".
But in practice what changes? Compared to a normal "railway and tramway operator", a FS railway worker earns about 200 euros more per month for the same hours, and without any productive feedback. It's not that he works more, in fact he has more rest shifts. After all, it suffices to compare the trade union platforms of the national employment contract for road and tram drivers - used by many private individuals - with the one used by FS (called AF, Activity Railways1). The AF contract is incredibly more rigid, with very long rest periods after night work (which is essential in freight), limited to a maximum of 80 nights a year, compared to the maximum 4 nights per week for bus and tram drivers. It is a pity that in the freight sector the vast majority of work takes place at night, and that many operators have chosen the Logistics contract, which allows for an almost unlimited number of nights of work (freight trains are inevitably forced to travel mostly at night ).
Let's not talk about the strong multi-functionality of "normal" railway transport workers (not included in the FS contract and without the relative privileges), similar to the best European standards, whereas in the AF the tasks are rigidly specified. Private railway companies will be forced to bear considerable extra costs as well as reduced work efficiency. And all for a decision – which could be defined as improvident, short-sighted, illiberal and objectively wrong – inserted within a maneuver that should be oriented towards a liberalization of the various markets. This is in stark contrast to the liberalizing wave that is affecting rail freight transport, therefore the first market in this sector to be liberalised, but which sees a series of barriers to entry which prevent it from being effectively opened.
Barriers established by the incumbent (Trenitalia and RFI, separate companies only on paper), by the regulations and by the Government's choices (think of the Prime Minister's Directive of July 2009, which allowed RFI to "give away" 70% of the railways to Trenitalia) and – in many cases – of the Regions. The Directive just mentioned leads us once again to the lack of competition, with specific reference to the case of goods. In addition to the allocation of terminals, it should be considered that without public contributions Trenitalia Cargo would never have been able to survive the entry into the Italian market of new private operators, from the Germans of Deutsche Bahn to the Swiss of SBB, passing through the Italians CFI, InRail and ISC , the Interporto Servizi Cargo headed by Gianni Punzo, even led to abandoning the Industrial Union of Naples following the veto placed by the CEO of FS Mauro Moretti on his participation in the presidency team (see Il Denaro, 25 November 2010).
Returning to public contributions, in the period 2005-2009 (last five years of the budget available) Trenitalia Cargo received 587 million euros from the State in contributions for the universal service. Money that has not been assigned through public tenders and on which it is therefore not possible to carry out a check on the real correspondence with the service provided. Not to mention the more than 4 billion euros in contributions and subsidies from the State and local public bodies, including through armored agreements that prevent other operators from entering the regional passenger transport market in a competitive manner, even if prices and services are long best. An example of this is the recent bankruptcy of the Piedmontese Arenaways, which seemed to be the solution to the complaints of the many Turin-Milan commuters about the bad travel conditions with Trenitalia.
Normally the efforts of a private company that offers an excellent service without asking for public support should have been rewarded rather than hindered. But unfortunately things don't work like that in Italy. And instead of seizing an opportunity to finally open up a market to competition, to better services and lower prices, a supposedly liberalizing majority decides to put a stone on it without any rational justification, unless they want to listen to gossip about a political exchange between the CEO of FS, Moretti, and representatives of the Northern League and Pdl to put Luca Cordero di Montezemolo out of the game both from an economic and a political point of view. All on the skin of citizens and businesses. But that's just gossip...
* Partner of Open Gate Italy
