Greater than 100 staff protested on the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence on Sunday (4 January) after momentary workers on the museum had been successfully laid off.
Carrying placards, flags and flares, demonstrators gathered in Piazzale degli Uffizi—the museum’s lengthy inner courtyard—behind a big banner studying “No extra precarious lives”.
“New Yr’s decision: proceed working along with the employees of the Uffizi Galleries,” the commerce union Sudd Cobas, which organised the protest, wrote on Instagram. “What’s at stake is a unique thought of labor, of the town, of tradition.”
The dispute centres on the destiny of informal staff following a change in service suppliers on the museum. In September final 12 months, Opera Laboratori Fiorentini—the corporate that had managed ticketing, surveillance and hospitality providers on the Uffizi since 2006—was changed by competitor CoopCulture. Whereas staff on everlasting contracts retained their positions, some momentary staff assigned to safety, reception, ticketing, the bookshop and the cloakroom weren’t rehired.
In response to Sudd Cobas, former staff who had been on nine-month seasonal contracts have been changed by new workers employed on extra versatile, on-call contracts. The union says a few of these affected had labored on the Uffizi on momentary contracts for greater than a decade. Employees at different Florence museums now served by CoopCulture—together with the regional directorate of museums of Tuscany and the artwork restoration establishment Opificio delle pietre dure—have additionally been affected.
“Florence’s tourism economic system can not proceed to depend on low-paid and precarious work,” the union mentioned in a press release. “It’s time that every one momentary staff are given everlasting contracts.”
In a written assertion, CoopCulture informed The Artwork Newspaper it had up to date employment preparations “in full compliance with the provisions of the tender discover, which included a listing of staff for whom continuity of employment needed to be assured”. The corporate added that staff on fixed-term contracts with the earlier concessionaire “weren’t included within the process and are subsequently not linked to the brand new concession”.
A delegation of union representatives and staff is anticipated to fulfill with Dario Danti, Florence’s deputy mayor for labour, within the coming days. The union has additionally appealed to the Tuscany regional authorities for help and known as on Simone Verde, the director of the Uffizi Galleries, to take a “robust stance” on the difficulty.
Responding to The Artwork Newspaper, an Uffizi spokesperson mentioned that as a state-run establishment, the museum can not immediately make use of workers and should depend on tradition ministry tenders. “For seasonal or momentary staff not retained by the brand new concessionaire, the museum can solely exert ethical suasion,” he mentioned.
The spokesperson added that Verde “has at all times been dedicated on the negotiating desk to making sure that as many individuals as attainable maintain their jobs”.
Rosanna Carrieri, the president of the culture-sector staff’ affiliation MiRiconosci, informed The Artwork Newspaper that momentary workers had “turn out to be pillars of the Uffizi.” She added: “There can’t be A-, B- or C-grade staff in Italian public museums—least of all on the Uffizi, which has successfully turn out to be a ticket-selling, revenue-generating machine.”
The Uffizi Galleries, which embody three essential establishments—the Gallerie degli Uffizi, the Palazzo Pitti and the Giardano di Boboli—obtained greater than 5 million guests in 2024, and based mostly on its most up-to-date reviews, generate roughly €60m in annual income.
