Investing in young people is a categorical imperative aimed both at relaunching the Italian socio-economic system and to strengthen intergenerational balances in work. A crucial issue addressed in the conference held at the Milan Fair at the end of last October as part of the International Labor Forum and promoted by Flaei – Cisl with the title “Overcoming the crisis by investing in young people”. The meeting, chaired by the secretary general of Flaei-Cisl Carlo De Masi, was able to count on the participation of the secretary general of CIS Lombardia Osvaldo Domaneschi, of leading representatives of the most important Italian electricity companies, with Marianna De Luca, Head of Infrastructure Area and Networks of Enel Italia, Nucleco CEO Emanuele Fontani, Edison’s head of industrial relations Stefano Giudici, A2A director of industrial relations Luigi Caronni, as well as the lawyer Ciro Cafiero, and the president of Fidae Lombardia Sister Anna Monia Alfieri . The conclusions were entrusted to the CISL Confederal Secretary Giovanni Luciano. The speakers took the opportunity to illustrate each of the initiatives undertaken by the respective companies for the enhancement of young people, their insertion into the world of work and above all to identify resources and tools that are decisive for human capital. The most incisive lines of intervention presented by various speakers focused on the need to create a strong intergenerational group to strengthen cohesion within companies, carry out lifelong learning, develop inclusive policies, especially for young people, but who actively involve the most experienced staff, to mean the 50 and 60-year-olds who must remain at work for a long time and must be considered a decisive resource for the good of businesses. Emanuele Fontani di Nucleco has given voice to the company’s fast-growing investment program, which has led to a 17-18% recruitment rate for young people in recent years.

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The other speakers, on the other hand, focused on both good practices for the recruitment of young people and on the management without redundancy of the crisis that hit the thermoelectric, an element of concern for the negative spillovers that it determines on employment levels. This is the case, for example, of Edison who in the last four years has had to close 10 production plants. A more purely legal and sociological analysis is instead

was offered by Ciro Cafiero and Sister Anna Monia. The first indicated the limits and opportunities of the current legislation on agile work, the second made the civil passion for a school feel strong and clear equal for an inclusive social model, where young people are in the foreground, not as a problem to be solved, but as an indispensable resource for transforming the country. “Today is the time for good politics and a good economy – the secretary general of CISL Lombardia Osvaldo Domaneschi recalled in his speech – an ambitious project is needed, capable of modifying in depth those parameters which since the beginning of the millennium have been an unsolved problem for all Western societies. We must have the ability, desire and energy to face a major ethical, cultural and political change, capable of redesigning the principles of a new history for Italy and Europe “. But not only. “A new and more effective production architecture must be built – stressed the secretary general of Flaei Cisl Carlo De Masi – within which to combine every type of choice capable of investing in work and young people”. It is no coincidence that companies are able to target the future, to do research, to invest in innovation, those create jobs, new expectations, industrial strategies, international value. “Even the Italian electricity sector – De Masi recalled – has been affected by numerous critical factors: ungoverned liberalization; forced privatizations; lack of strategic planning; excessive efficiency; industrial transformation; internationalization of companies with negative effects on the thermal generation sector and on direct and related employment “. We are in fact in a phase of strong energy transition, from whose outcome, if governed in a concerted manner, we could return to create value for businesses and boost employment. “The introduction of a balanced capacity market mechanism can give breath to the thermal sector. Network innovation, broadband, home automation, electric mobility, storage, represent the new frontier of Italian Multiutilities – added De Masi -. The dismantling of some thermal power plants and the decommissioning of nuclear power with the reclamation, safety and reuse of strategic sites are opportunities for development and work that we cannot thwart ”. To highlight, then, as in recent years almost all electricity companies have suffered. But the trade union, in particular Flaei, has accompanied with responsibility and commitment all the reorganization processes, trying to bring home agreements that would allow on the one hand to protect the existing job, on the other to boost employment, in particular of young people. “We were the first to sign – concluded the secretary general of Flaei Cisl – intergenerational agreements in Enel and in other companies in the sector (Art. 4 Fornero law), as well as the alternation between school and work, even with some sacrifices on the part of less young (see electricity tariff reduction) “. A winning bet is to focus on young people as highlighted by Giovanni Luciano, Cisl confederal secretary. “Operational choices and projects for investing in young people, broadening the base of the employed, especially and increasingly involving women are welcome – said Luciano- these elements of an economic and technological innovation which, however, cannot be separated from a great strategic plan that Italy has been missing for decades, starting from the energy-environmental side. The current system crisis has overwhelmed the younger generations, not only because of the negative effects of a shock of the world economy with uncertain borders and effects that are not yet quantifiable, but because of an evident fragility of our country, devoid of concrete and coherent models of social development “. This has led to even more disruptive effects on employment, as well as on the overall structure of the Italian economy.

“It was not just a serious loss of competitiveness, income or the fall in GDP – observed Luciano – In reality, the sort of small business organization or public support that had dominated over the years has been shattered the choices of the Italian economy and politics “. An all-out intervention by the Confederal Secretary of the CISL starting from the real economy and the need to anchor the economic recovery both to a solid growth in domestic demand and to clear policies in favor of work, investment for young people, a social equity and economic sustainability, pursued not at the expense of the rights and the most fragile areas of the country. “The commitment of the union, of the economic and business world, of politics must be incisive and rapid – claims Luciano – to generate that indispensable conversion to restore confidence in the country, promote investments, bet on the courage of young people to overcome the profound fractures present in the country”. Finally