Work, Meloni: "Let's celebrate May Day with facts, the numbers are encouraging"

"Tomorrow is Labor Day and this year too the Government has decided to celebrate it with facts because we believe that this is the best way to thank the Italians who contribute every day to making our nation great". Thus the President of the Council, Giorgia Meloni, in a video released at the end of the meeting of the Council of Ministers. "Italy - the Prime Minister claimed - is increasingly a Republic founded on work and I am proud of the fact that in just over two and a half years over a million jobs have been created. We have reached a record number of employed people, the female employment rate has never been so high, unemployment is at its lowest level in 18 years. Permanent contracts are increasing, precarious employment is decreasing. And real wages are growing in contrast to what happened in the past. Between 2013 and 2022, with the previous governments, in the rest of Europe the purchasing power of wages increased by 2.5%, while in Italy it decreased by 2 percent. Since October 2023 the trend has changed and families are gradually recovering their purchasing power with a wage dynamic that is better and not worse than that of the rest of Europe. There is clearly still a lot, a lot to do - Meloni admitted - but the numbers that ultimately tell the reality are encouraging".

"There is still a lot to do on workplace safety too: in the last few days we have recorded new victims and new accidents. You can't die like this and I want to express my condolences and my closeness to the families of the victims. However, I am aware that condolences are not enough and we must continue to act: in the face of this phenomenon, as President Mattarella said, indifference and resignation are intolerable. The government has always put the issue of workplace safety at the center, for example with the credit license, with the hiring of new inspection personnel to increase controls, with resources to reward companies that invest in prevention. Today we have found another 650 million together with Inail, to implement new concrete measures that, together with the 600 million already available from Inail calls for tenders intended to co-finance company investments in these areas, bring the resources available to improve workplace safety to 1.2 billion". Thus the President of the Council Giorgia Meloni, in a video on social media after the conclusion of the Council of Ministers.

"A problem we need to work on is that of 'in itinere' accidents, which are increasing, and this leads us to reflect on the implementation of road safety in our training courses on workplace safety. But on this it must be said that our country recognizes protections even when one is going to work, while other large countries do not. So I believe that the Italian protection system is valid, it must be implemented, we must invest: but looking at the requests of the social partners, even those made before the installation of this executive, it seems to me that the government has responded to those requests". Thus, speaking at the post-Council of Ministers press conference, the Minister of Labor and Social Policies Marina Elvira Calderone.

"We are aware that on the front of safe work and safe life there is still a lot to do". Today the Council of Ministers "in acknowledging what has been done has also acknowledged the fact that the other interventions, everything that will need to be done further on the subject of health and safety in the workplace, requires a call into question", of "an important consultation with the social partners who will be convened on 8 May". This was indicated by the Minister of Labour and Social Policies, Marina Calderone. "Today we are not approving a decree - she explains - because it seems important to us to do a preliminary sharing and above all also to listen and make use of what may be the further assessments and requests that come from the trade union world, from the employer world, from the productive world in general", she says