Agencies: trade unions call on Leo to review the rules governing the staff incentive scheme

The Revenue and Customs trade unions have appealed to the Deputy Minister for the Economy, Maurizio Leo, and requested an urgent meeting to discuss the new rules governing the allocation of the staff incentive fund. These new rules were introduced by the 2026 Budget Act. In a joint statement, FP CGIL, CISL FP, UIL FP, Confsal/Unsa and FLP have appealed to the Deputy Minister to overturn the mechanism introduced in last year’s budget, which ‘reserves the criteria for allocating 75 per cent of the staff incentive funds solely to the employer’. Whilst acknowledging their appreciation for the ‘allocation of funds, once the scheme is fully operational, to the tax agencies’.

In the letter, which was also copied to the Director of the Finance Department, Giovanni Spalletta, the Director of Revenue, Vincenzo Carbone, and the Director of Customs, Roberto Alesse, the trade unions point out to Leo that the decision regarding the 75 per cent, which has been entrusted to the employer’s side, in their view, contravenes ‘the framework of Title III of the Consolidated Act on Public Employment and, in particular, is in stark contradiction with Articles 40 and 45 thereof’ and stands ‘at odds with certain fundamental principles enshrined in our Constitution’.

The trade unions that signed the appeal emphasise in their letter to Leo that ‘they have never intended to challenge employers’ prerogatives regarding the organisation of the offices’ but that they are ‘not prepared to accept a complete overturning of the principle of collective bargaining on pay scales, covering both basic pay and ancillary benefits’.

Hence the request to the Deputy Minister to arrange ‘an extremely urgent meeting to explore the possibility of avoiding conflicts that would not be in the country’s best interests’ and ‘before proceeding with measures with which we are prepared to counter a course of action that we find unacceptable on every front, both trade union and legal’.

In the same press release, the trade unions also set out their position on the Revenue Agency’s afternoon opening hours: a strategy the Agency has been working on for months with a view to providing in-person assistance at its service desks (as well as remote assistance) to both taxpayers and professionals. At the latest meeting on Wednesday 9 September with the trade unions, the Agency announced its intention to proceed along this path. In their statement addressed to Leo, the trade unions object ‘not to the mere opening of service desks in the afternoon’ but to ‘shifting the burden onto staff, and in particular onto the work-life balance of individuals, by excluding the legitimate representatives of workers from any meaningful dialogue aimed at reaching mutually agreed solutions that have less of an impact on people’s lives’.