Security and defence contract signed: a gross increase of 188 euros per month

Around 188 euros gross per month and a one-off payment of 2,448 euros under the heading ‘arrears’. These are the key figures set out for the approximately 430,000 Carabinieri, police officers and military personnel under the agreement reached yesterday at the Public Service Ministry on the 2025–27 collective agreement for the security and defence sector. The agreement comes a year and a half after the final signing of the 2022–24 contract, and clears the long-standing contractual arrears in this sector as well, bringing a minimum of 200 euros net per month (€2,600 a year) to staff pay packets: naturally, for those with higher ranks – for example, in the police force, commissioners, chief commissioners or the corresponding technical and medical roles – the figures involved are higher.

The agreement plays a concrete card on the table – that of security – which promises to remain at the centre of the political agenda at least until the next elections, as demonstrated by the return, the day before yesterday, to the Council of Ministers of the bill containing the so-called ‘anti-Maranza’ provisions. However, the discussions at Palazzo Vidoni did not stop at contractual issues alone; they also included in the package the launch, within 90 days, of a round-table with the Ministry of the Economy on social security matters, with the aim of laying the foundations for that ‘dedicated social security scheme’ that the sector has been clamouring for: resources permitting, of course.

“We want to provide greater protection for those who protect us,” sums up Paolo Zangrillo, Minister for the Public Administration, as he adds yet another contract renewal to the list – a list which could be further expanded next Monday with an agreement for local government staff, whilst an important meeting on the pay and benefits aspects of the healthcare sector is scheduled for Tuesday at ARAN. “Two renewals in a year and a half are a clear sign of this Government’s commitment to the issue of contract renewals, particularly towards the approximately 430,000 people who ensure the country’s internal and external security every day at a historic moment marked by great complexity,” the minister is keen to emphasise.

Contract renewal and pension negotiations form part of a wider package, which also includes a plan for 17,591 new recruits across the Police (5,319), the Carabinieri (5,080), the Guardia di Finanza (3,206), the Prison Service (2,489) and the Fire Service (1,497); and which therefore also provides some response to the need to strengthen staffing levels – a call reiterated by the opposition in response to the Security Bill and which has so far remained unaddressed in the case of local police forces, as mayors have also been emphasising in recent days.

But rather than being directed at politics, the responses are aimed at a sector which, like much of the public administration, is recovering from many years of restrictions, frozen staff turnover and resources being doled out sparingly. It is this history that has fuelled the discontent which will be expressed on Saturday at a demonstration organised in Rome by five trade unions representing the Guardia di Finanza, the Carabinieri, the Air and Naval Police, the Army and the Navy. This is not a protest against the institutions, they explain, but a call to the State for greater safeguards regarding pensions, transfers, organisation and professional recognition.