State Councilor Norman Gobbi lists some numbers: «Historically - and here I am referring to the 80s and 90s - the frontier worker was a resource for the secondary sector and our industries benefited, not finding sufficient manpower in the canton. Other sectors, too, in the event that the company lacked a necessary profile, had the possibility of accessing a much broader and often highly qualified labor market. The bilateral agreements with the free movement of persons starting from 2005 have changed the whole reference framework: all preventive checks on who could come to work in Switzerland have been skipped. So today in Ticino we have 74 thousand frontier workers. Not only in the secondary sector, but above all in the tertiary sector there was an explosion of employees that almost reached the threshold of 50 thousand units. From September 2020 to September 2021, therefore in the middle of the COVID crisis, cross-border commuters in the service sector increased by 5,4%. These are figures that must make us reflect ”.
So what has changed following the pandemic? For Andrea Puglia of the OCST union "the pandemic has shown the fundamental importance of cross-border commuters in our economic fabric". For his colleague from UNIA Giangiorgio Gargantini, the longer the crisis in Italy, the more pressure on the Ticino labor market will increase. Now there is talk of recovery, beyond the border, and someone, such as Luca Albertoni, director of the Canton of Ticino Chamber of Commerce, speculates that part of the local workforce could be lost. Moreover, even the new tax agreement between Switzerland and Italy could make the status of frontier worker less attractive, at least for those arriving with us for the first time.
What currently drives an employer to choose a cross-border employee? For Puglia, a mix of training and, unfortunately, wage issues. «Cross-border commuters accept or tend to accept lower wages. But at the time they are qualified with excellent training, especially those operating in the tertiary sector. Mendrisiotto's computer science, for example, does not have resident profiles in line with the skills and requirements required by the company ». Raimondo Pancrazio of the Italian Labor Union (UIL), adds that “there are skills, for example those required by industry, not all available on the Ticino domestic market. Of the approximately 8.000 cross-border commuters from the Milan metropolitan area who work in Canton Ticino, most of them are medium and highly professional figures: they are engineers, chemists, computer scientists. Certainly cross-border workers are often hired for the lowest wages, but also because they carry skills that are not available in the local labor market ».
What do employers think? With great transparency, those who were questioned told us how many cross-border commuters they employ. For Andrea Gehri, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Industry, Crafts and Services of the Canton of Ticino and owner of the homonymous company that manufactures, supplies and installs ceramics, mosaics, natural and artificial stones, sales and technical consultancy are “About 50, a number that corresponds to about 67% of the total workforce employed. They are essentially employed in the role of installers, construction site profiles and logistics management, most of them have been working with us for many years ". At the Rivabella di Magliaso retirement home, director Alexandre Alerman speaks of «62 cross-border commuters out of a total of 124 employees. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical company IBSA has 67% of the staff who come from across the border, half employed in manufacturing.
And several of them complain of not finding skilled Ticino labor. «In Ticino the pharmaceutical sector employs about 3.000 people, in Lombardy the same sector can count about 29.000; in fact, it should be borne in mind that the Italian pharmaceutical industry and in particular the Lombard one is among the first in the world ", underlines Virginio Cattaneo, Head of Humas Resorces of the IBSA Group, according to which" the pharmaceutical sector in Ticino, although growing from different time, it does not have a critical mass sufficient to generate an internal labor market sufficient to guarantee the manpower needed for the growth of the company. Gehri underlines how «in particular in the construction and craft professions we register a certain distrust on the part of young Ticino people and / or residents to deal with manual professions. We consider this a real shame. If there were local workers, domiciled, resident who intended to work in the construction and crafts sector in particular, we would be very happy ». According to Aleman, "the market does not abound with health personnel and there are actually not enough resources for elderly homes". According to Pancrazio, “there are entire sectors in Ticino, starting with healthcare that would not stand up without cross-border commuters. The very symbol of Switzerland, its watches, are sixty percent produced by workers without a Swiss passport ”.
Of course, the Ticino job market is not always easy for young people, if it is true, as evidenced by a research by CSR, that 9/10 of students beyond the Gotthard believe that to aspire to a threshold of well-being it is necessary to leave Ticino. "Let's not say, however, that the Ticino people emigrate because of cross-border commuters," warns Gargantini. “Rather, they do it because of the poor wage conditions offered by the Ticino labor market. The difference is fundamental ».
What prompts a frontier worker to come to us? AC, an employee of the social and health sector, central precisely in the pandemic era (Gobbi underlines how much the crisis has shown the fragility of the sector, too dependent on the cross-border worker), confesses that she mainly wanted to help her family economically, but also speaks of the quality of work . “I am grateful to Switzerland for the opportunity. The life of the frontier worker is also made up of early rising and traffic, but the positive sides prevail. Our work here in Ticino is recognized, unlike what unfortunately happens in Italy ». On working conditions, Cattaneo specifies: "There is an objective convenience for workers across borders to work in Ticino companies like ours, which offer conditions that, with the same position, they would not find elsewhere".
So, returning to the basic question, is the cross-border worker an opportunity for everyone? Gobbi remains critical. «There is no doubt that the frontier worker is also a resource, that he is a“ good worker ”. This is not the problem. As I said, it is the dynamics that arise within the Ticino labor market in particular - and also in Ticino society - linked to the cross-border worker that create problems. Just as there are no doubts that the frontier worker is also hired for a salary discourse, otherwise we would not have had to intervene as a State in about twenty economic sectors by applying “imperial” normal employment contracts ”. And Marco Chiesa, president of the UDC, invites employers to give the possibility to residents, "who are mothers, daughters and sons of our company, to have the opportunity to work in Ticino at a reasonable salary".
However, the entrepreneurs do not agree: "In the construction and craft sectors there are no different salaries between cross-border commuters and residents, but collective labor agreements with salary classes that regulate the degree of training and continuing education", explains Andrea Gehri. Without a doubt, Italian personnel are indispensable for Ticino, also with a view to economic and qualitative growth. It is undeniable that there are some critical issues, just as it is also true that also in the future we cannot ignore the synergies with Italy in terms of personnel.
