The Minister of Public Administration, Philip Patroni Griffi, spoke on the pages of Il Messaggero regarding the controversy over the workers' article: “On the application of art. 18 a debate has developed at times incomprehensible if not indecipherable to the state ”, he stated in a letter to the Roman newspaper,”a piece of Italy asks to hit public workers as if there were accounts to settle".
"The country needs unity and not divisions", added the Minister, who then listed the reasons that make the application of art misleading. 18 to the state. First of all, access to the Public Administration takes place through competition.
Furthermore, the regulation of the termination of the employment relationship is "in balance between guarantees of legality and duties of workers additional to those envisaged in the private sector". On the one hand, the civil servant can and must be fired if he commits certain crimes or if he has misconduct envisaged by law. But the discipline of the private manager cannot be applied to the public manager which provides for the dismissal due to the loss of trust, as "no relationship of trust can be created between the public manager and the political and administrative top".
Finally the dismissal for economic reasons in the public sector has an ad hoc discipline, "a series of procedures are triggered which lead to the mobility of workers to other administrations and to the possible placement in availability with economic treatment equal to 80% of the last salary for two years".
