Page 205 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 205
The Labour Factor: The Docks of Trieste and Koper through the Global Crisis
What is being configured is the so-called ‘tristebrni model’ (three-pil-
lar model) which includes direct work, work administered, and subcon-
tracting relationships with external companies. The target? More direct
workers and a greater wage balance (Luka Koper 2018).
However, using external companies has allowed Luka Koper d.d. to
save more than half the budget that would have been spent every year
if all the workers had been direct employees. Against the background of
this great change there is the lawsuit being brought by the company Ips
Projekt. Founded by a group of entrepreneurs excluded from the port fol-
lowing the application of the new workforce recruitment model, it is de-
manding the payment of 20.7 million euros by the port administration
which now pays the workers around 40% more than what their compa-
nies paid them before (Luka Koper 2019a; Luka Koper 2019b; Urbančič
2020).
As we have said, in Italy the port labour market represents a very
specific segment of the labour market in general. It is governed by the
Port System Authorities who exercise a power of regulation and super-
vision and have a planning and direction role. Previously, the managing
bodies of the port had an economic character, with partly executive, ad-
ministrative, operational, and managerial competences, while in accord-
ance with Law 84 the new Authority has only public tasks. It has changed
from being a public enterprise to becoming a guarantor of private activ-
ities. Not surprisingly, the new rules require ‘the privatization of all ac-
tivities having an operational and managerial character’, leaving the Port
Authority with the sole tasks of administering and managing the port
territory, controlling the activities of companies, and promoting the port
system as a whole.
The application of the law and subsequent amendments have pro-
duced several variations in Italian ports: over time in Trieste it has caused
a progressive loss of the role of the Port Company and strengthened the
role of terminal operators. The Port Company, transformed according to
article 17 of Law 84/94, has gradually become marginal in the operation
of the port due to a lack of calls. After its liquidation, the function of
temporary work provider was assumed by a newly established company
founded by some of the main terminal operators of the port and improp-
erly by several multi-service companies. Therefore, the organizational
model was very fragmented, with a strong presence of cooperatives. They
provided services according to a very flexible and differentiated working
205
What is being configured is the so-called ‘tristebrni model’ (three-pil-
lar model) which includes direct work, work administered, and subcon-
tracting relationships with external companies. The target? More direct
workers and a greater wage balance (Luka Koper 2018).
However, using external companies has allowed Luka Koper d.d. to
save more than half the budget that would have been spent every year
if all the workers had been direct employees. Against the background of
this great change there is the lawsuit being brought by the company Ips
Projekt. Founded by a group of entrepreneurs excluded from the port fol-
lowing the application of the new workforce recruitment model, it is de-
manding the payment of 20.7 million euros by the port administration
which now pays the workers around 40% more than what their compa-
nies paid them before (Luka Koper 2019a; Luka Koper 2019b; Urbančič
2020).
As we have said, in Italy the port labour market represents a very
specific segment of the labour market in general. It is governed by the
Port System Authorities who exercise a power of regulation and super-
vision and have a planning and direction role. Previously, the managing
bodies of the port had an economic character, with partly executive, ad-
ministrative, operational, and managerial competences, while in accord-
ance with Law 84 the new Authority has only public tasks. It has changed
from being a public enterprise to becoming a guarantor of private activ-
ities. Not surprisingly, the new rules require ‘the privatization of all ac-
tivities having an operational and managerial character’, leaving the Port
Authority with the sole tasks of administering and managing the port
territory, controlling the activities of companies, and promoting the port
system as a whole.
The application of the law and subsequent amendments have pro-
duced several variations in Italian ports: over time in Trieste it has caused
a progressive loss of the role of the Port Company and strengthened the
role of terminal operators. The Port Company, transformed according to
article 17 of Law 84/94, has gradually become marginal in the operation
of the port due to a lack of calls. After its liquidation, the function of
temporary work provider was assumed by a newly established company
founded by some of the main terminal operators of the port and improp-
erly by several multi-service companies. Therefore, the organizational
model was very fragmented, with a strong presence of cooperatives. They
provided services according to a very flexible and differentiated working
205
