What’s happening in the Italian Space Agency (ASI)?
Italian Space Agency (ASI): criticism from internal unions and the position of the top management of the Agency chaired by Teodoro Valente
Mobilization of personnel for the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
The unitary trade union representatives (RSU) of the ASI have proclaimed a state of permanent agitation and administrative stasis.
On 20 November 2024, during an extraordinarily well-attended trade union meeting, the staff of the Italian Space Agency vigorously contested the initiative to modify in restrictive terms two ASI regulations on working hours and the forms of work to be remote. Initiative taken by the new management of the organization with the aim of drastically reducing the use of flexible working by simultaneously inserting bureaucratic and formal forms of control, unrelated to performance, we read in the RSU press release.
From ASI they let it be known that within the Agency there is a moment of lively and heartfelt debate: the topics raised are the subject of a broad and open discussion. Reflection is necessary to face the challenges that will also come from the next tasks that await the agency.
In fact, at the beginning of the week, during the hearing on the space economy bill , the president of the Italian space agency, Teodoro Valente, assured that "ASI is ready to oversee the new activities that the bill regulates".
Therefore the Agency will have to change its skin, in order to be ready "and fully capable of overseeing the next activities that will derive from it" as declared by the president. Therefore the discussion must concern both the new discipline, working hours, and agile working, reformulation of the structure, and flexibility of employees involved in the reformulation of work.
All the details on the ongoing confrontation in the Italian Space Agency.
THE POSITION OF THE ASI RSU
For over a week, ASI staff have been in a state of permanent agitation with administrative stasis after the top management feared the possibility of restrictions of the two regulations regarding working hours and forms of remote working.
As the RSU note explains, "the ASI staff expressed themselves in ambiguous and particularly harsh terms, and the final document of the assembly judges the interventions of the Summit as "offensive, unmotivated, anachronistic, counterproductive, oppressive and demotivating" .
“The reason for these measures is not clear considering that the use of agile working is a method tested for years in the Italian Space Agency. In the pandemic era, ASI managed to perform perfectly with over 90% of staff in smart-working. Furthermore, today, both the government indications and the negotiation activities in Aran are both oriented towards the consolidation of the existing forms of flexibility and their strengthening until the prevalence of face-to-face work is overcome", declared the general secretary of the UIL ScuolaRUA Federation – RUA sector, Attilio Bombardieri.
“Going back on concretely positive experiences is illogical and also undermines other areas such as the attractiveness of employment at the ASI and the conciliation of work and life times, affecting female workers in particular”, concluded Bombardieri expressing the I hope that the ASI leadership will radically reconsider this initiative.
THE REORGANIZATIONS OF RECENT YEARS
As the Federation of Knowledge Workers (Flc Cgil) recalls , the Agency has been subjected to multiple reorganisations: "one per President, essentially one every 4/5 years. Yet the workers of Asi have always ensured that the activities continued. And the latest reorganization has brought about a real reshuffling of staff not always "inspired" by the magnificent mechanism of skills mapping, creating quite a few difficulties for a significant number of workers at the Agency, as also highlighted in the recent survey on organizational well-being promoted by the CUG".
The latest one dates back to last August, when the summit approved the reorganization of the Agency with a thinning of the offices (equal to a reduction of 30%), with the aim of eliminating all those responsibility functions which did not correspond to a unit but a single person, with a consequent saving for the Liability Compensation Agency.
THE NECESSARY FLEXIBILITY
Fresh from the recent success of the 75th edition of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) last October 2024 in Milan, the most important world event in the space sector which recorded record numbers this year, the Agency finds itself in a moment of transformation .
Without forgetting that in September NASA positively evaluated an ASI project to build the first home that will house the women and men who will stay on our satellite as part of the Artemis program for the Moon.
And this is why employees believe it is essential for ASI – to maintain the agency at the levels of reputation achieved in the international community – to guarantee the correct recognition of human capital.
ASI is indeed a public agency, but its employees are not tellers, therefore it is all the more necessary to remodulate working hours so that flexibility is regulated differently. In light of the fact that the Agency is a particular body that works all over the world, with hours that go beyond the ordinary 9-18.
NOT JUST AGILE WORK
Therefore, the necessary reflection does not end around the proposed hypothesis of a reduction in agile working, but rather the discussion is much broader and concerns a reform of the structure that takes into account the necessary flexibility of working hours and the new skills that will arrive.
THE POSITION OF PRESIDENT VALENTE IN VIEW OF SPACE LAW
President Valente referred precisely to the new phase that lies ahead during the hearing on the space economy bill last November 26, convened by the Productive Activities commission of the Chamber, where he assured that "ASI is ready to oversee the new activities that the Bill regulates".
“In our opinion, the bill completes the national regulatory framework, stimulates and promotes the development of private activities by creating legal certainty, adapts the regulatory framework to that of the main countries with which Italy has relations in the space sector and stimulates the national production of the aerospace supply chain through the introduction of the Space Economy Fund” explained Valente.
For the president of the Italian Space Agency, "being equipped shortly, as far as Italy is concerned, with an organic regulatory instrument at a national level will certainly allow us to operate in an efficient framework and aware of the possibilities and rules that will lead to the space to be an increasingly commercially widespread area".
Therefore, "for the Agency, operations will not be limited exclusively to authorization issues, but will also concern support for the entire national ecosystem, made up of research bodies, universities, large, medium and small companies, start-ups, in carrying out space programs, to ensure that the public resources made available to operators can take on the "role" of a multiplier. The tools provided by the DDP will allow our small and medium-sized enterprises a better ability and condition to compete at a European and hopefully international level" concluded Valente.
THE NEXT STEPS
Finally, regarding the ongoing agitation, the top management has given its absolute availability to the broader dialogue, recognizing the importance and contribution of its employees.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/spazio-e-difesa/che-succede-nellagenzia-spaziale-italiana-asi/ on Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:12:31 +0000.