The daily press has been proposing for some time, before the start of the school year, the alarm for the impossibility of finding teachers in Milan. In the Lombard capital, the rankings are empty and there are 15.000 teachers missing. The same problem occurs in all large urban centers in the North where the cost of living is higher than in the rest of the country. Of course it is unfortunately true that the figure of the teacher no longer has the social recognition it deserves, that the effect of the "one hundred quota" is producing damage which can hardly be repaired in the short term, but the origin of the many ills of the school weighs the contractual model that centralizes the determination of wage levels regardless of the cost of living of the different territorial realities is very strong.
Teachers from the north (it should not be forgotten that it is precisely the very numerous ones of southern origin who suffer the most negative consequences), especially in large urban centres, are underpaid. Since there is neither a company supplementary bargaining nor a territorial bargaining, the effect is that, through a perverse egalitarianism, the wage cages are reproduced "in reverse", with real wages lower in the North and higher in the South. The attribution of professorships in the north to teachers from the south has been defined as "a deportation". The term is inappropriate but gives a good idea of the catastrophic consequences for those who, having moved to the north, have to bear costs, starting with the rent, which can cut at least 30-40% of their salary.
Moreover, this diabolical mechanism does not seem to impress the same national trade union organizations that see in the national contract an indispensable instrument of control which it should guarantee the unity of the Italian school. But one thing are the teaching courses which must largely be common throughout the country, another is the remuneration mechanism which, according to logic and to protect workers' rights, must be different, precisely to guarantee fair wages.
The ways out to achieve the result are numerous, but not all simple and, above all, compatible with the state of public finance. One solution, within the framework of the possible transfer to the Regions of the administrative management of the school, could be that of entrust to the regional integrative bargaining the task of defending the purchasing power of teachers. Since the current costs of the State would be transferred to the Regions, it would be up to the Regions (which request it) to bear the burdens induced by the wage difference between the national contract and the territorial supplementary contract.
It remains difficult to understand the defense of the status quo in the name of a misunderstood sense of national unity which instead hides a deep-rooted desire for conservation completely devoid of strategic horizons for the enhancement of the school. In reverse it is precisely this situation that risks causing the disintegration of the school and with it of our society. To reverse the dangerous trend that confines the Italian school more and more to a residual role (the recent images that the recent Invalsi survey gives us constitute a dramatic alarm) it is certainly not enough to guarantee the real salaries of teachers, but this is not secession, it is a first step forward also to restore an element of greater dignity to these professional figures.
Hi, personally I wouldn't put the question on these floors. The problem exists, it exists and no one can deny it, as it exists for all categories of workers who, alas, in 2022, are still forced to leave their families and their lives and relationships, to move in search of work. However, I don't think that wage cages can be effective, I don't think they represent the best solution for uniting the country. I heard that the municipality of Milan has made housing available to ATM staff, due to the presence of too many workers from outside the city and unable to pay rent, given the situation on the real estate market in Milan. One could therefore think of giving an economic contribution only to workers residing outside the region, to cover the costs of rent. But I would not extend a measure of this type to all cities, also because rental prices are not so high in all northern cities, they are on average like all other Italian cities. Unfortunately, not only in the education and research sector, the problem exists in all categories as I said, but if it is a problem of the internal market in some cities, the municipalities should solve it and not a state intervention. They are workers who serve not the whole country but the local communities, Milan is one of those examples where there is no shortage of money and needs workers from outside if not many services especially in the public would not work.