Gianni Camisa, CEO of Atesia, the COS Group Company controlled by the AlmavivA Holding, has written an open letter to the employees and freelance staff of Atesia on the job situation at the company, following the recent problems relating to employment contracts.

 

After a reminder that the agreement signed when Atesia was taken over by Telecom Italia, in May 2004, providing for the activation of 1,100 apprenticeship contracts aimed at developing vocational skills and 500 work insertion contracts, at the terms and conditions provided by the law, was implemented only in January this year, due to the lack of conditions, Atesia stresses the significance of the agreement recently entered into, on 11 April last, with the trade union organizations.

 

Based on this new Agreement, Atesia will have a total of 530 employees under open-ended contracts by the end of October, compared to 90 at the time of acquisition. On top of this, a further 1,500 employees will be included in a job-stabilization program, which preludes to employment of indefinite duration, in accordance with the collective agreement for the telecommunications sector.

 

The Open Letter by Atesia’s CEO also reminds that, to date, there are about 3,600 employees under fixed-term contracts working in the Group’s CRM activities and that, under the latest agreement between Atesia and the trade unions, their number will rise to about 4,100. This means, says Mr. Camisa in the letter, “that the Company will have the highest ratio of permanent employees among all Companies present in Italy”.

 

The letter continues highlighting the savage competition that, from 2004, has also been boosted by the procurement procedures of central and local government. ”The current public procurement system based on the principle of achieving maximum cost savings, necessarily entails, in spite of our best efforts, the use of project freelance contracts, otherwise we would simply be chased out of the market. It must be clear – he adds – that we have not given up our convictions regarding permanent employment, which we have increased in absolute terms, although we have also been obliged to rely on freelance staff hired only for specific projects, in order not to lose contracts to our competitors, most of whom, I must repeat, do not have even one permanent employee. This situation has had a negative knock-on effect on the Group’s CRM sector, which will be unable to support further cost increases, without profound and transparent changes in the behavior of all the market players, otherwise we will be out of business”.

 

Lastly, Mr. Camisa reminds that he has informed the competent authorities many times of the need for setting out clear and defined rules on the use of project freelance contracts, which all call center companies must abide by.

 

The letter ends with the proposal of a meeting with the trade unions, employers and central and local government authorities, to straighten out the matter and clarify acceptable procedures relating to non-employee professionals. At the same time, it would also be necessary to address the problems relating to the criteria for awarding procurement contracts and the introduction of common rules for both public and private sector companies