NHS technician and administrative contract: up to 12% increase with signature

Last Tuesday 11, the Pre-agreement of the collective agreement of the Local Functions Area, which includes the section on professional, technical and administrative managers of the SSN, was unexpectedly signed. I used the adverb 'unexpectedly' because events have contradicted what could have been predicted two months ago. In fact, on 19 September I had written on the site that in the two Steering Committee Acts there was a formal difference in the texts that appeared truly singular. The Act relating to health management called for a 'rapid closure' of the contract in order to then start negotiations for the three-year period 2025-2027; this was absent from the document relating to local functions.

Instead, the situation was reversed, because the National Collective Labour Agreement (CCNL) for local authority executives was closed after only three meetings (9 and 28 October, 11 November), while the negotiations for health executives continued after the last meeting on 10 November, which followed those of 1, 15, and 27 October. For the 137,370 healthcare executives, the draft of the contract text is, as always, a work in progress in which positive adjustments to the text were in any case found on the basis of the unions' requests and, in particular, increases were requested on the fixed part of the salary. There is no lack of novelties on holidays and aggression, as already defined in the recent contract for the sector.

After the Comparto, therefore, also the 5,218 executives finally obtained the renewal that - it should not be forgotten - refers to the three-year period 2022-2024, which has abundantly expired. The contract was signed by four unions and not by the CGIL, thus reversing the course that had seen the UIL not sign the CCNL of the sector last 27 October. As a result, this latest contract remains the only one in which the UIL's position has remained aligned with that of the CGIL, although the last word is not said because that union decided to sign the CCNL of the Central Functions Sector at a later date - nine months and 8 days later -, as per ARAN's communiqué of 4 November.

The initialled text is very meagre, with only 40 articles and four joint declarations. As is now traditional, there is a part common to all (RAL managers, PTA managers and municipal and provincial secretaries), consisting of Articles 1-18, and a section dedicated to professional, technical and administrative managers with Articles 26-33. The common provisions include a number of measures already defined in the contract for the sector: agile work, disposal of residual leave, serious illness, parental leave, legal aid in the event of aggression. Specifically with regard to PTA management, the share of resources allocated to the fixed part of the salary rose to 88% of the total resources available and the increase in the fixed part of the position salary was equal to 10% of the amounts of the previous CCNL 16.7.2024, with the exception of managers with professional appointments for whom an increase of 12% was obtained, taking into account the need to strengthen the entry quota for new managers. In addition, the role of integrative bargaining was clarified with regard to the criteria for assigning technical incentives, an issue that disproves all the theses - including authoritative ones - that held that the issue was unilaterally defined by company regulations.

However, many past and recent critical issues remain unresolved, but it must be acknowledged that an appreciable pragmatism suggested to the negotiating parties not to further damage the purchasing power of wages by wasting months in extremely complex negotiations. This is not to say that these aspects will not have to be promptly taken up again to finally reach a pactual definition that is structural, fair and resolves so many past issues, as well highlighted in Joint Declaration No. 3.