Free restorers, workers: 'disqualifying'. And the Province of Salerno defends itself

Controversy flares up over the incredible exploratory notice published a few days ago by the Province of Salerno, through which the administration is seeking restorers free of charge and who will even pay for the interventions out of their own pockets. In short, in addition to the harm of not having their professionalism recognized, there is also the mockery of having to cover the interventions at their own expense. In short, it almost sounds like the ending of the movie Fantozzi retires, when the galactic mega-director readmits the retired Fantozzi back into the mega-firm on the condition that the protagonist pay to be able to work. Reality has surpassed fantasy.

This afternoon came an attempt at defense by the Province of Salerno. “I realize that some fundamental passages need to be clarified,” said Michele Strianese, President of the Province, “as well as it should be noted that we are talking about a simple exploratory notice and not a call for bids, as someone mistakenly reported. I am also sorry that an important category of workers in the world of culture, the restorers, may have read with bitterness a notice that did not provide adequate allowances for professionalism. I would therefore like to explain the context well. It was only last year that the Italian government finally ratified, after signing in 2013, the ’Faro Convention,’ which commits its participants to recognize cultural heritage as a right and fundamental element for human development and quality of life. By adhering to this Convention, participating countries not only commit themselves to ensuring that inheritance and participation in cultural heritage is a right for all, but also to protecting the same heritage.”

“Obviously then,” Strianese continues, “adequate economic supports are needed for all this to materialize, otherwise we slip into the realm of talk. Unfortunately, just take a look at the latest Federculture Annual Reports, especially those preceding the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted the social, economic and cultural life of the entire planet, obviously penalizing the entire world of culture and tourism.” Strianese points the finger at the cuts to the provinces, “We who know the provinces well know that everything stems from the Delrio Law of 2014 and related budget laws, which imposed draconian cuts on us. The 2014 Manoeuvre cut 3 billion in funding over the three-year period 2015-17, the next one cut the staffing of Italy’s 76 provinces by 50 percent. In particular, the provinces lose the delegation to culture and cultural heritage with an exacerbating incongruity: the provinces possess an often significant cultural heritage, as in our case, which, however, remains without funds for management, maintenance and preservation. A tragedy then, of which, however, no one seems to have noticed, despite the fact that the Provinces have loudly raised the issue several times. For their own cultural heritage, the provinces have zero resources. Luckily there is the Campania Region, the only one that has been close to us through SCABEC spa (Società Campana Beni Culturali) with which we have signed a very important memorandum of understanding for the management and enhancement of our cultural heritage. In fact, SCABEC, an in-house company of the Campania Region, is deputed to the enhancement and promotion of the region’s cultural heritage and has offered us concrete solutions to the distortion of the Delrio Law which, I repeat, takes away from the Provinces the delegations and resources on a cultural heritage that in fact remains our property. We started this journey with the region only in 2019, we still have a long way to go together, because our heritage is really of great historical and artistic depth and is extensive.”

In short, for Strianese, the fact that the provinces no longer have funds for culture would seem to justify a notice asking restorers to do the work out of their own pockets. And the president concludes with an appeal, “I ask for action with facts, either constructively with targeted funding, or to reform the provinces so that they can again have funds needed for the maintenance and preservation of their cultural heritage. To return to the Faro Convention we should all try together, in concrete terms, to allow the provinces to protect their cultural heritage as a crucial factor for sustainable growth, human development and quality of life, so that cultural heritage is a right for all.”

Workers, however, do not stand for this. “We are faced with a clear manifestation of what for local authorities is the marginal role that culture should play: the cultural heritage of the Province of Salerno is vast, but to protect it they choose not to spend money,” declare the associations Courage Salerno, Do you recognize me? I am a cultural heritage professional - Campania section and Link Fisciano. “In other words, one chooses not to pay with the right compensation a professional, but to exploit him in a voluntary way, for purposes that have nothing of solidarity, as voluntary works provide. But to the harm is added the mockery. The restorer who will be chosen, not only will he not be paid, but he will have to provide for the expenses of his own work. Yes, not only is there no pay, there is also no reimbursement tied to expenses. This request disqualifies an entire category made up of overspecialized professionals who already, more often than not, have gone through expensive courses of study. Why should a young person undertake studies to become a restorer (we repeat, a specialized professional) if the job market that awaits him or her is based on a model of free, casual, or ’flexible’, i.e., precarious, work? What to expect from the future if it is even a public body that does not recognize his professionalism?”

“We would like to be able to say,” the three associations conclude, “that this is a specific, occasional case of the Salerno area, but unfortunately it is the litmus test of a way of seeing cultural work that, for too many years, has been rampant in our country. School, university, research and cultural heritage are the state’s piggy bank, ready to be broken when there are funds to be found to spend on something else, causing precariousness and deskilling of entire sectors, which only in words are defined as strategic for Italy. So, we launch an appeal to the province. We ask that the call for proposals be withdrawn immediately; or that it be modified by specifying that the expenses must be borne by the Entity and providing for the proper compensation for those who will be selected. We invite all associations, both local and national, sensitive to the issue to support us by publicly endorsing these demands.”

Photo: Phoebus Foundation

Free restorers, workers: 'disqualifying'. And the Province of Salerno defends itself

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