In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[quote]"...and taking your thread slightly off line school teachers...well at least some in the schools my son goes too..always the same ones tend to teach the first day of the scholastic year and then are not seen until the last... supply teachers then taking over... this means the supply teacher gets a non guarnteed job for the year..they can be pretty certain by asking work colleagues if this is a permanent absentee type teacher... but with no pension rights... the original full time permanent teacher not only getting paid for the year but also retaining her right to the substantial pension.. its how it works here..[/quote]
My (Italian) niece is a teacher in a 'State' asilo nido (crêche) in Milano. She has worked there for just over 30 years. She, like everyone working in the school, was 'awarded' her post because her father had a [I]friend[/I]. In her case it was the local Union chief. Her asilo is run by the Comune of Milano and they too are undergoing some radical changes at the moment. But the medical inspections have been in place for a number of years, and are - I can assure you - (when carried out), pretty strict in her field. Last year she had an accident on her scooter and broke her shoulder. Her absence was 'O.K.'d' for the first two weeks by production of the hospital certificate. At the third week she was summoned to a medical by the City Medical Officer and was given a further two weeks 'permission'. At her second control the MO said she was fit to return to work as her arm/shoulder was proteced by the plaster. It took her an age to convince him that '[I]her job[/I]' could not be done in that condition. She cares for SIXTEEN of the 3 month to 2 year old children with [I]all[/I] that entails. How could she lift, feed and change these tinies? Well he relented - but made it clear that he was sick of people who tried to get him to sanction their dislike of work. (oh that there were more like him...). She was then granted a further two weeks and had to continue controls on this basis until she was declared fit following extensive physiotherapy.
However - there [I][U]was[/U][/I] an 'extra' sting to the tail... she was told that she could get an 'ad hoc' home visit by an MO at anytime between 9am and 6pm any day Mon-Sat. On one day she was taken (by me) to get her hair cut. When we returned 'HE' had been and left a card in her casella postale. This instructed her to visit the office within 24 hours for a [U]full[/U] medical control! We went immediately and, boy...was she put under the microscope - I was questioned too! They finally accepted that she was not moonlighting, but it [I]was[/I] scary.
She is in full agreement with such draconian measures - as their 'state industry', like many, is falling apart through the [I][U]skivers[/U][/I] who abound. She is convinced that many are sanctioned by State Medical Officers who are on the take too! I can't disagree with her. Something must be done, and if Berla manages it (he should though perhaps start within his own governement and departments), then Italy will be all the better for it.
i like the dwarfish type person that drew up this law...he often has various outrageous for Italians anyway ...statements to make on the talk shows here... and is one of those sorts of very bright people...
talking about sickness etc ... and taking your thread slightly off line school teachers...well at least some in the schools my son goes too..always the same ones tend to teach the first day of the scholastic year and then are not seen until the last... supply teachers then taking over... this means the supply teacher gets a non guarnteed job for the year..they can be pretty certain by asking work colleagues if this is a permanent absentee type teacher... but with no pension rights... the original full time permanent teacher not only getting paid for the year but also retaining her right to the substantial pension.. its how it works here..
however there are major reforms due out soon and the main union that tends to cause the trouble here is already planning general strikes....
one of the reforms is to return primary school masters to single classrooms... teaching all subjects with say just part time or attached specialist teachers for things such as English... they seem to have singled out this subject as important for children to start learning early... anyway from reports.. it seems that around 85,000 primary school masters could well be about to have their jobs terminated...
basically its a return to how Italian schools were run before the crisis of the low birth rate set in... they found they had too many teachers and not enough children so they got rid of the one master one class system and made it a job for three teachers instead... so its about to go back to how it was...
another interesting point regarding schools here is the Bidello... they have a new more up to date name now... but everyone still seems to refer to them as that... my sons present school has four of them .... its not a large school and among their duties seems to be a large degree of sort of personal services for the professors... fetching coffees and newspapers from the nearest bars... doing shopping just in case the teacher might not be able to manage it ...and general other fetching and carrying... oh yes and their official duties mean they are supposed to clean the school too... the job is for life...carries a good pension and ensures your child of whatever ability gets a place in school and a good enough mark to pass onto the next higher school...
this is all coming under attack too... their was some mention of the fact that there are more of these individuals than their are caribinieri ... maybe they will have their jobs switched...
anyway it seems to me that hard times are coming to Italy as the CISL ...i get confused with all the unions but i think this is the radical one that calls strikes and refuses to deal with anyone who hasn't got a Marxist background and is most probably one of the largest and richest here prepares to go to battle again... they have just walked out of the set of meetings with the equivalent of the CBI say in the UK over reforms to the national bargaining and set rates of wages in industry here... meaning that private employees could add production incentives into salaries at a local level... Italy has a vast amount of small enterprise type factories (80% of all manufacturing is regarded as small to medium here)that often cannot take on orders because they cannot get the staff that they have to do anything outside what the union has agreed... and cannot afford to train extra permanent staff... the idea was to allow those employees say in cases like this to negotiate an increase to their salary attached to the extra production and hours required ... all the other unions involved have signed the agreement... but it will be difficult to go forward as often the workplace has several unions involved...
what this is all going to mean is strike after strike until someone gives up... at the moment the government is running at a high level of popularity.... and they are prepared to battle... how it will all turn out ... well we will have to wait a bit...