Federculture and Mi riconosci? protest Colosseum ticket tender for unfair labor contracts

A European tender for the Colosseum Archaeological Park's ticketing services, issued on October 3 by Consip (the Ministry of Economy and Finance's procurement agency) and open until November 3, 2022, has sparked controversy. The contract, worth up to €20 million over 48 months, requires bidders to have sold at least one million tickets annually in similar contracts over the past five years and to absorb existing staff. Federculture, the association representing major Italian cultural companies, denounced the tender for specifying the CCNL Multiservizi (a collective labor agreement for cleaning and catering) as the reference contract, arguing it fails to protect cultural workers and discriminates against firms using the proper Federculture CCNL, signed in 1999 with CGIL, CISL, and UIL. The association calls for the tender to be redone. The activist group Mi riconosci? also protested, calling the use of Multiservizi an abuse that legitimizes improper wages for Italy's most visited museum. Earlier, unions Fisascat-Cisl and Filcams-Cgil had warned that splitting ticketing from other services (call center, audioguides, education) could harm workers and visitors. The controversy highlights ongoing tensions over labor protections in Italy's cultural sector.