Precarious cultural heritage workers have denounced to Fanpage.it a very difficult situation in the sector, which has become even worse with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Undeclared work, denied rights, starvation wages, exploitation, the awareness of having to change jobs to try to build an autonomous and dignified life. Precarious workers in the cultural heritage sector have denounced to Fanpage.it a truly difficult situation in the sector, which has worsened even more with the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, i.e. before the coronavirus, a survey had already photographed very serious working conditions: a large number of forced VAT numbers, a great diffusion of voluntary work, but also undeclared work, with often very low hourly wages, ranging from 8 to 9 euros per hour. In 2020 and 2021 other surveys showed how the situation had worsened with the pandemic. In the past few days, interviewed by RAI and then by Fanpage.it, Niccolò Daviddi, a young archaeologist who, after speaking on TV, was fired for revealing that he only earned 6 euro net per hour, had raised the issue.
Ludovica Piazzi, of the ‘Mi Riconosci’ association, which fights against precariousness and exploitation in this area of work, tells us: ‘This is a sector in which there has been practically no generational turnover, because there have been no competitions for several years. So there hasn’t really been much recruitment there has been outsourcing of services and in general there has been the emptying out of many institutions. which have fewer and fewer staff. And so basically there have been no or very few opportunities for those of my generation.”
“As soon as I finished my bachelor’s degree, I started looking for a job in the cultural heritage sector and found a position as a museum operator at the Civic Museums of Rome. The contract was made by a subcontractor, so it was not the direct management of the museums of the Municipality of Rome. The pay was EUR 4.73 net per hour,’ explains Oriana Federici, museum operator. On the other hand, Cecilia De Laurentis, who is now a tattoo artist, says: ‘For years I worked in a private foundation as a library and archive assistant. I continued my experience abroad for a while, working in a history museum in Germany. On my return, I was plunged back into the reality of Rome, which was basically made up of privatisation, undeclared work, denied rights and starvation wages. This led me, within a couple of years, to decide to stop trying to work in the sector altogether and to devote myself to something else’.
There are a lot of precarious workers in the cultural heritage sector who are trying to change jobs: ‘Many people who did the same studies as me, i.e. art history graduates, then decided to change sector. Precisely because working in this field does not allow you to build an autonomous and dignified life,’ Oriana recounts.
