Renewal of state contracts, the guide: resources, salary increases and regulatory changes

Negotiations will begin this year for the renewal of the public administration contract, which expired on 1 January 2022.
Thanks to the 2024 budget law with which the resources are allocated to reach an agreement that can take into account the increase in cost of life recorded in the three-year contractual period.
The Meloni government made an important effort with the maneuver, even giving up other measures (see the pension reform) to allocate the resources necessary for the renewal: 8 billion euros, of which 3 billion for 2024 and 5 billion for 2025 , which as explained by the Minister of Public Administration (Paolo Zangrillo) represent a third of all the resources of the Budget Law.
An important allocation that will guarantee public employees a significantly higher salary increase compared to previous renewals.
In addition to also intervening on the regulatory part of the contract obviously, with the provision of new rules with which the merits of employees will be rewarded.
While waiting for negotiations on the renewal to begin, we take stock of the situation by analyzing what we know about the new contract, starting from what should be the size of the salary increase granted to public employees.
Contract renewal, when negotiations will start As explained by the Minister of Public Administration, Paolo Zangrillo, negotiations for the renewal of the Public Administration contract, for the three-year period 2022-2024, will start in the next few weeks.
However, as anticipated, not all resources have been released for this year.
Which is why there will be sectors that will have precedence, one above all that of Defence, Security and Public Rescue, where before starting the negotiations we wait for the Ministry of Economy and Finance to give the definitive green light to the transition governed by law no.
.
46 of 2022, with which the new military unions are established.
The Healthcare sector also takes precedence, for which there are 2.4 billion euros reserved.
For the others, from the central sector to local authorities, up to schools, the renewal agreement could be postponed until next year.
read also Holidays not taken, what changes for public employees with the ruling of the EU Court of Justice Salary increase renewal of contract The aspect that most interests public employees is obviously the economic one, as they ask themselves how much their salary increases with the renewal.
In detail, according to the estimates made in the technical report to the 2024 Budget Law, with the resources available, when fully operational – therefore from 1 January 2025 – a salary increase equal to 5.8% of the salary scale should be achieved.
An average and gross increase which for the majority of the 3.2 million public employees should fluctuate between 180 and 190 euros gross per month.
After that there will be the arrears, from which however what has already been recognized in 2023 will be subtracted with the extraordinary increase in the contractual holiday allowance.
An unprecedented increase, at least if you look at the last two renewals: but on the other hand it couldn't be otherwise considering that the inflation confirmed in 2022 was 8.1%, while in 2023 it was 5.7%.
A strong signal was therefore needed to compensate for the devaluation of wages recorded in these two years.
The new regulations In recent days the Minister of Public Administration, Paolo Zangrillo, has signed the first act which will have to lead to the renewal of the contract: it is the "Mother Directive", which dictates the guidelines which the president of the Aran (the body responsible for carrying out the renewal negotiations on behalf of the State) in defining the agreement for the new contract.
The news is that a large part of the funds available – in total it is 9.95 billion euros, of which 5.5 for the central functions sector, tax agencies and non-economic bodies – will have to be used to finance institutes linked to productivity .
This means that from now on there will be greater attention to employee merit, both for the recognition of awards and for authorizing career advancement.
The evaluation must be subjective and careful, in order to avoid the awarding of prizes indiscriminately (as often happens today).
Judgments must be careful and differentiated: everyone cannot be rewarded, it is necessary to identify those who are most deserving and give them the right economic value.
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