Why is only Healthcare excluded from the removal of the spending cap on supplementary salary ?
While in various sectors of public employment there are openings for flexibility thanks to the removal of the supplementary spending cap provided for by Article 23, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree 75/2017, healthcare personnel are once again left out of any reform. It is a regulatory and political distortion that cries out for justice.
Recent legislative changes have in fact allowed local authorities – Municipalities, Provinces, and Metropolitan Cities – to increase the fund for supplementary salary, provided they meet conditions of budget balance and financial sustainability. It is an important step, awaited for years. But in all this, public healthcare companies remain blocked, with no possibility to reward the extraordinary work of their employees, except within the limits set in 2016.
Why?
The reason is purely technical and political. Healthcare companies are not local authorities: they are regional structures, subject to a particularly strict system of national and regional spending caps, designed to contain overall healthcare expenditure. The paradox is clear: those who were on the front lines during the health emergency, those who guarantee care every day, remain excluded from any possibility of decentralized contractual growth.
To make matters worse, the restrictive interpretation of the application of the cap even to supplementary welfare tools risks further penalizing healthcare personnel. Health professionals are thus deprived not only of economic tools, but also of additional social protections.
It's time to say enough.
A clear legislative intervention is needed, extending to the healthcare sector the exemptions provided for other public sectors. We cannot talk about valuing personnel if, in practice, we prevent the economic recognition of the commitment and professionalism of those who work in hospitals, territorial services, and emergencies.
We demand the immediate removal of the supplementary spending cap for the healthcare sector as well.
It is a matter of fairness, respect, and justice.
Francesca Batani
Regional Manager Emilia Romagna Nursing Up
