Only preconceived opposition to the Renzi government or Susanna Camusso's personal grudge against the premier can explain the incredible about-face of the CGIL which, in the final document approved by its last Congress in 2014, had clamored for the overcoming of equal bicameralism with the establishment of a Chamber of Regions and the redefinition of responsibilities between the State and the Regions, which were fully incorporated in the constitutional reform, but which then forgot everything and sided with NO in the referendum.
HERE IS AN EXTRACT FROM THE CGIL CONGRESS DOCUMENT
“The fundamental principles and values of the Constitution must be defended and implemented. The CGIL confirms its opposition to any hypothesis of reform of the Constitution that breaks the indispensable balance between executive power and legislative power, or that leads to the overcoming of the parliamentary system as would happen with the (semi) presidentialism or the premiership, against which we will fight even with the referendum.
The priority requirement is to restore the centrality of Parliament, requalifying its activity, reducing the decree of urgency and regulating in a restrictive sense the possibility of posing the question of confidence on any provision in question.
For the CGIL some reform interventions are necessary to be implemented according to the procedures constitutionally provided for by art. 138:
1) Overcoming perfect bicameralism with the establishment of a Chamber representing the Regions and Local Autonomies.
2) The reorganization of the competences of the State and the Regions governed by article 117 of the Charter, bringing back to the exclusive competence of the State some matters currently subject to concurrent legislation and strengthening the national regulatory function, both in terms of guarantee of the essential levels of services, concerning civil and social rights, both in terms of the exercise of competing matters.
3) The definition of an organic design which, starting from the institution of metropolitan areas that can no longer be postponed, leads to an integrated system of institutional levels with which to overcome overlapping and confusion of roles between central administrations and the system of autonomies, and which enhance and develop the functional autonomy of the Republic (starting from education and research) as places for exercising citizenship rights. This design must overcome any ambiguity in relation to the necessary existence throughout the national territory of a vast area entity, financed with adequate resources, which performs the functions of an intermediate level between the municipality and the region with the aim of guaranteeing the performance of those administrative functions, such as school building, environmental protection, road systems at the provincial level, civil protection, employment and professional training services, and others, which the municipalities, even if organized in unions, would not be able to able to acquit. In this path, the guarantee of the maintenance of public services to citizens currently provided by the provinces and of existing employment, including precarious workers, is a priority, enhancing and not dispersing existing professionalism.
It is necessary to give positive responses to the growing demand for participation by citizens, starting with the reform of the electoral law that cannot be postponed, which restores the power of choice of the elected on the part of the electorate, safeguarding the public role of the parties, promoting the political and social democratic representation, encouraging forms of active involvement of the population. To this end, the CGIL believes that action must be taken to:
1) The recently approved law which abolished public contributions to parties, replaced by a questionable system of indirect contributions (2 per thousand), makes it necessary to introduce alternative forms of public support, such as the free concession of goods and services , defined in a national framework law which determines the forms and methods exclusively for each institutional level, in order to guarantee the democratic principle of equality in political participation. In a system based on private financing, it is also advisable to introduce adequate rules that guarantee maximum transparency at every level, punctual reporting and full accessibility of all private contributions to parties and movements, cultural associations and foundations that they propose the elaboration of political ideas and programmes.
2) Enact new laws on conflict of interest, ineligibility and incompatibility.
3) Approve a national law on the forms of participatory democracy and a reform of the referendum institute which introduces the «mobile quorum» (linked to the turnout recorded in the last election of the body which legislated).
In recent years, under the pressure of the economic crisis, a plan has been brought forward, made up of linear cuts, which aims to resize the area of public intervention, to reduce public services and knowledge, canceling some rights of citizenship. A continuous process of debasement and impoverishment of public work, with the introduction of centralized bureaucratic rules that have greatly weakened public institutions, with the aim of blocking their operations. These are choices that the CGIL has opposed, harmful to the country and ineffective for a profound reform of public administrations.
The priorities we indicate are:
1) A reform of the Public Administrations which starts from the overcoming of the policy of fragmented and incoherent interventions, without an organic design and a unitary headquarters. Such a policy "preaches" federalism while practicing a very strong legislative centralism.
2) A strong redevelopment of public institutions and knowledge through targeted investments with which to build an employment program with permanent work, starting from personal services and knowledge with the aim of keeping the latter under direct management. After the repeated hiring freezes, which have led to a dramatic aging of public work, precarious work is proliferating, especially for young people, which must be transformed into stable work.
3) A campaign of organizational simplification, consistent with institutional reform, and bureaucracy, which brings appreciable benefits to service users. It is necessary to define a national and territorial consultation of service users, for the identification of processes aimed at simplification and technological innovation in the use of health services and local administrations, reversing the policy of outsourcing, through innovative processes of the PA. In particular, innovations in the field of computerization must not affect the users of public services and services, overturning the burdens and duties of the Public Administration on the social intermediation structures.
4) In terms of expenditure, the practice of linear cuts and interventions that prevent the effective exercise of functions - especially those of service to citizens and businesses including inspection services in the field of health and safety at work - must be overcome, while guaranteeing the fight against waste and corruption.
5) The elimination of all central and territorial consultancies.
6) Transfer ownership of the management of purchases of goods and supplies to national and regional purchasing centres, generalizing the adoption of standard purchase costs. The reduction of unproductive and discretionary operating expenditure must lead to new investments in terms of the qualification of services to individuals and businesses.
7) Making social clauses, employment, contractual and environmental guarantees binding for service contracts and services, without prejudice to the obligation to publicly justify the economic and social convenience of the choice of outsourcing.
8) Reform and qualify the system of investee companies, introducing the necessary rules for the protection of work and essential services, strengthening the business aggregation process, guaranteeing in any case the role of the public in the control and management of services.
9) Insisting on the fight against corruption and for legality, a fight that passes through full accessibility and transparency on the choices and quality of spending.
10) Create a different balance between the financing of services and operating expenditure, as a basis for a profound revision of the Stability Pact, which restores local authorities' spending capacity for investments in the territory.
11) Making the process of institutional reform, innovation and simplification and reform of public administrations effective, with a pact for reform that overcomes legislative constraints, restores correct and effective trade union relations, defines contractual, economic and legal instruments capable of enhance and redevelop public work, also removing the blockage of turnover and collective/national and supplementary/territorial bargaining.
12) It is necessary to give the business system certainty in the times for the collection of credits from the public administration".
