Fincantieri, what happens in subcontracting?
The trial for exploitation of workers, subcontracting under price and episodes of corruption surrounding the Fincantieri procurement system is underway in Venice. About two thousand workers exploited according to the results of the investigations by the Guardia di Finanza
Fincantieri's subcontracts end up in the crosshairs of the yellow flames for the exploitation of the workforce.
On March 28, the Guardia di Finanza announced the discovery of almost two thousand workers employed in related industries in the Fincantieri shipyards who would have been paid irregularly and often deprived of the most basic rights sanctioned by collective agreements. The news on the investigations by the inspection and control bodies, coordinated by the Venice prosecutor's office, concerns the management of payroll.
“We learn from the media that investigations are underway by the Guardia di Finanza on companies in the context of shipyard contracts, including those of Fincantieri. The picture that is emerging is cause for concern", commented Samuele Lodi, Fincantieri coordinator for the national Fiom CGIL, noting that "the ongoing process, resulting from the investigation by the Venice Public Prosecutor's Office into the irregularities in the Marghera procurement system, has seen civil parties Fiom Venice, Fiom Veneto and Cgil Venice".
At the moment there are 33 people accused, including 13 among managers, middle managers and employees of Fincantieri, and the owners of some companies that had contracted carpentry work in the shipyards owned by Fincantieri. In 2018, in fact, Fiom had presented a complaint to the Venetian prosecutor's office, from which the investigation had started, lasting 5 years and which in the meantime led to 3 further trials.
All the details.
EXPLOITATION OF LABOR ACCORDING TO THE FINANCIAL GUARD
On 28 March, the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, following a previous investigative activity directed by the Public Prosecutor of Venice regarding the existence of systematic exploitation of the workforce within the shipyards of Venice, identified almost 2,000 workers , mostly Bengalis and Eastern Europeans, paid with irregular wages and often deprived of the most basic rights sanctioned by collective agreements.
AT THE CENTER THE MECHANISM OF THE "GLOBAL PAY"
At the center of the investigation is the systematic recourse by contractors to the mechanism of the so-called "global pay", by virtue of which the worker is paid, regardless of the provisions of the national collective agreement for the sector, with a flat-rate hourly wage, parameterized exclusively to the hours worked.
This gross pay was recognized against the preparation of a fictitious pay slip, bearing the indication of artificial items – such as "salary advance", "meal voucher allowance", "80 euro bonus", "travel allowance" and " TFR advance” – in fact never paid to the employee and intended to subtract the emoluments paid from tax, social security and welfare withholding, explains the note from the Guardia di Finanza.
To trigger the investigations of the Gdf precisely the reports of the Fiom CGIL.
LINKED TO THE FINCANTIERI PROCUREMENT INVESTIGATION
As the Corriere points out, “All the activity is connected to a wide-ranging investigation into Fincantieri tenders, which still sees four trials ongoing, one of which the next hearing is scheduled for May 24th. About fifteen Fincantieri executives are being investigated, whom the public prosecutor accuses of having set such strict conditions in the tenders that they cannot help but imagine that the winning companies would have consequently paid starvation wages. But the hard core of the investigation, from a criminal point of view, concerns the gifts and money that these executive figures were paid by the contracted companies, to close their eyes to the irregularities”.
FIOM'S REQUEST
Therefore, Fiom asked Fincantieri yesterday to open a discussion on procurement with the trade unions.
The federation and its delegates have been claiming for years the need to open a "real confrontation" with Fincantieri to tackle the tender issue. "The working and salary conditions of the employees of the companies contracted on the construction sites of the public subsidiary – they explain – are very often not compliant with the contractual and legal provisions". The metalworkers point out that "the phenomenon of so-called global wages is only the tip of the iceberg and must be overcome". And they are asking to "substantiate Fincantieri's corporate social responsibility, demanding that subcontractors comply with the law and with contracts".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/fincantieri-che-cosa-succede-nei-subappalti/ on Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:05:09 +0000.