The Pilots' Union (UPI) has strongly criticized the renewal of the rates for the pilotage service for the two-year period 2023-2025. On the occasion of the 16th National Assembly of the trade representation, held on September 13 in Valderice (Trapani), in his report the president of the Pilots Union, Vincenzo Bellomo, recalled that the tariff renewal has seen the establishment of a technical table, made up of associations concerned, chaired by the Ministry of Transport and assisted by the General Command of the Port Authorities, whose work has been carried out Prolonged for more than a year. "Work - has specified Bellomo - it was intense and all parts involved were confronted with mutual institutional respect. The participants at the technical table have certainly recognized the enormous financial effort supported by the Corporations in the recent years, during which they have had to cope with the increase Inflation has been compounded by the slowdown in trafficking due to the war in Ukraine. However- emphasized Bellomo - it was impossible for Union Pilots do not make their dissent and criticism heard faced with a tariff approval process which, in the opinion, of the association itself, it seemed to operate in reverse. The feeling perceived by Unione Piloti is that all the work of the table has been nullified, in the light of a conclusion which is Parsa, to the undersigned association, already defined, to regardless of the results of the work still to be done. Is that so - denounced the president of the UPI - that the update tariff obtained, from the point of view of Unione Piloti, has sacrificed those principles of fairness and transparency required by EU Regulation 352/2017. At the same time, the procedure used seemed, almost, to have cracked the Working scheme outlined by the new procedures and mechanisms tariffs wanted by the competent Ministry of Transport. For such reasons Unione Piloti did not consider it appropriate to lend its consent to the tariff update and has, consequently, activated its lawyers for an appeal to the TAR Lazio ».

However, the UPI hailed it as "a momentous victory for Unione Pilots the updating of the rates of local practices». Bellomo pointed out that the proposal to update the tariffs of local practices of 15%, stubbornly supported by the Pilots Union, "He found the associations concerned unanimously in agreement. The update in question - specified Bellomo - comes after years since the last renewal and has been determined, for the first time, from a constructive and fruitful collaboration between the authorities interested parties and the local practical stations'.

In his report, Mr Bellomo also pointed out that 'the constant attention of Unione Piloti has allowed then to put a I point to the long-standing problem of reimbursement of costs incurred for the conduct of compulsory vocational courses on the basis of Decree-Law 112/2018, essential for the conservation of the professional ability of the pilot. The members of Unione Pilots - he denounced - in recent years have suffered a intolerable discriminatory treatment when free choice or logistical convenience decided to carry out the courses at an authorized institution but not affiliated with other trade associations. Unione Piloti has constantly followed the affair to the point of asking for the intervention of the Directorate General of the Ministry of Transport. The General Management, punctually intervened, with a note specified that where the reimbursement Expenses for compulsory courses had not been made from the trade association still recipient of 2%, this it should have been covered by the Corporation of membership. Unione Piloti considers this conclusion the first stone of a road that is winding to reach, however, that goal that allows the redefinition of the method of allocation of 2% of the federal contribution. The current method of assignment in fact, in the opinion of Unione Piloti, is Discriminatory and anti-union. The work that Unione Piloti intends Pursuing has the specific objective of regularizing and ensure, instead, equal trade union treatment for all associations duly established and recognized. On the subject of the Pilots Union has, in fact, put forward a proposal, to it seems feasible, which would achieve the important goal equal trade union treatment both from the point of view administrative, as well as from the accounting point of view, also of the Seconded trade union. It has been proposed to define a quota fixed or basic quota to be distributed to each association Recognized. This would also cover the cost of the seconded trade union, and being freely assigned by the pilot to its own reference association, it should, therefore, Restoring both an elementary principle of democracy and the free choice of pilot'.