(Finance) – A labor market full of contradictions and disparitiesfrom salaries to protections, without forgetting the precariousness, which acts as a sovereign. It is a multi-nuanced picture that emerges from CENSIS-UGL report “Between new inequalities and changing work: what awaits the workers” presented at the Censis headquarters in Rome.
The study reveals some of the more obvious contradictions of work in our time and what could await workers in the near future. The loosening of the subjective relationship with work through smart working has facilitated its devaluationbut it is possible today to imagine one new season also experimenting original modes of involvement of workers in the destiny of companies.
Inequalities have increasedin a labor market that is proving increasingly difficult for young people, women, migrants and less skilled workers, and where the opportunities linked toemote working and to the digital they translate into precariousness. For 93.3% of the employed, more attention is needed for the conditions of workers, while for 64.9% of young people, work is only a means of obtaining income to spend on different activities.
There is a falling point on wages: 64.3% of workers (68.8% between workers and executives) believe that the salary is not adequate for the cost of living. It is estimated that 10.4% of employees are underpaid, that is, they can count on a monthly salary below the threshold values of 953 euros for full-time, 533 euros for part-time. In fact, in the decade 2010-2020 the gross wages of Italian workers decreased by 8.3% real and worse than Italy was only Greece (-16.1% real) and Spain (-8.6% real).
Most penalized are young people under 30 who earn 40% less than workers over 55 and women who earn 37% less than men. Those with a fixed-term contract also earn 32% less than those with a permanent contract and those who work in the South earn 28% less than those who reside in the North-West.
Part-time is becoming more and more popularwhich affects 19.8% of workers (it was 15.8% in 2010), but 74.2% of men and 61.1% of women are in involuntary part-time work. Widespread also the remote workingwhich concerns 52% of the employed, and deliverywhich involved over 570 thousand people between 2020 and 2021.
What awaits us for the future? There training is considered essential to tackle growing disparities, both as regards digital skills (67.8% of employed persons) and IT security (65.9% of workers) and for specific aspects of work (84% of workers).
“I think there is too much generic opinion on work and its future, and instead an adequate reflection needs the seriousness and rigor of research like this”, he says. Giuseppe De RitaPresident of CENSIS, adding that the pandemic and the inflation have accentuated a dynamic of devaluation of work in progress for 15-20 years “.
“The time of the centrality of work and the centrality of work organization is over. Today we have a centrality of individual work and of the individual, a centrality of subjectivism, where work is only a tool for producing income. changing quickly, between smart working and new delivery methods, but only in the medium to long term will we understand what will remain, because it works and is really appreciated by workers and companies “.
The Secretary General of the UGL Paolo Capone confirms that “the world of work has changed a lot in recent years, often exacerbating inequalities and critical issues, even at a social level”. Among the critical issues – Capone recalls – the sense of belonging to the company and salaries but also the difficulties that affect women and young people, who enter a world that must find new ways of working.
“Politics have so far received little incisive and far-sighted responses, also penalized by a two-year crisis and continuous emergency due to the pandemic that has accentuated the precariousness and polarization of the labor market”, admits the trade unionist, suggesting “it is necessary to reverse the work must return to fulfill its role of personal and social fulfillment and, especially in times of crisis, supported with a decent welfare “.