RSU 2025: Nursing Up per “un contratto giusto, serio e che dia risposte reali”: di Nurse24

The elections for the renewal of the Unitary Union Representations (RSU) in Italian public administrations are approaching, scheduled for the upcoming April 14, 15, and 16. An appointment that also involves healthcare workers employed in public health companies, at a key moment, that of bargaining for the renewal of the National Collective Labor Agreement (CCNL) for Healthcare. In this context, the RSU elections become a strategic element to support and achieve “a fair, serious, and consistent contract with the real needs of healthcare professionals.” This is the position of Nursing Up, a union that opposed signing Aran's proposal last January, distancing itself from the other unions at the bargaining tables.

Aran's proposal? Disrespectful to healthcare professions

A contract is signed when it contains concrete and dignified answers. Otherwise, it remains just a downgraded contract, which protects neither the staff nor the public health system: this is the response to the other unions that criticized the choice of the union led by Antonio De Palma.

The president of Nursing Up, after the 'no' of recent months—which did not allow a majority to be reached within the union representation—claimed the choice as coherent and in favor of the workers. In fact, the proposal put forward by Aran was considered inadequate.

To date, Nursing Up remains of the same opinion: The CCNL 2022-2024 could have been closed and signed if the path of respect for healthcare professions had been chosen.

Only 8 euros more per month, among the reasons for the 'no' to the signing

Here is a summary of the “3 reasons for the No” to Aran's contract renewal proposal:

• It does not provide for or enhance careers for nurses and other professionals under law no. 43/2006
• It accepts an underfunding logic that penalizes nurses, midwives, and other healthcare professionals every day
• It does not recover purchasing power and recognizes for nurses, midwives, and other healthcare professionals only 8 euros more in monthly salary increase, compared to an assistant

The mystery of the 172 euros more per month

In particular, Nursing Up contests Aran when it talks about an average increase, provided for by its contract proposal, of 172 euros per month for nurses. But how do they arrive at this figure? Easy: just include explains the union also the resources destined solely and exclusively for emergency room staff, thus generating the distorted perception that the resulting benefit is automatically applied to everyone.

The union demands transparency in the numbers: To nurse Angela Rossi, or to midwife Giulia Verdi, who work in any Gynecology ward of any Italian hospital, the truth must be told they say they will not receive a 172 euro increase per month because that figure was calculated by including money that will go only to a small percentage of emergency room operators, and to decentralized resource funds.

The prerequisite for signing, the demands of Nursing Up

The “sine qua non” condition for a new contract, Nursing Up then emphasizes, is to demand and obtain not only additional resources from the government, but that those already available are distributed in a more equitable and targeted way, to give real value to healthcare professionals, without waste.

In detail, finally, the demands of Nursing Up that remain on the table:

• Guarantee the possibility to compete for access to the highly qualified area for all healthcare professions, including those who hold equivalent qualifications under the law (such as regional diplomas), on par with three-year graduates, recognizing equal dignity and equal value to the professional skills acquired. With equal qualification and contractual classification, the possibility to compete should not be denied.
• Give a specific connotation and a time of at least 2 hours per week, within the 36 hours provided for ordinary service, for activities dedicated to ECM training, and provide a further 24 hours per year for non-ECM training, in addition to other non-healthcare workers, as a real tool for quality, professional updating, and safety of care.
• Provide certain exemption from night shifts and on-call duty for healthcare professionals over 60 who request it, without leaving this choice to the discretion of the companies.
• Rethink the contractual introduction of the nurse assistant figure, which instead is being implemented without real negotiation and without impact assessments, while the figure of the family nurse is still missing, provided for by a state law since 2020, with specific resources already allocated.