Shortage of veterinary staff in the port of La Spezia

On the occasion of a meeting at Confindustria La Spezia with the Undersecretary for Health, Andrea Costa, the presidents of the associations of shipping agents, freight forwarders and Customs officers from La Spezia have faced the problem of the lack of veterinary staff in the port of La Spezia, with a situation of precarious balance that could be aggravated as a result of the next turnover on the number of staff that are below organic.

The operators' representatives pointed out to the Undersecretary that the shortage of staff for control veterinarian risks compromising the high efficiency of the port which, the first and only one in Italy, has been equipped for over a year of the Centro Unico dei Servizi in Santo Stefano Magra ( of 17 December 2019), in which all controls are concentrated, including those delicate on animals, on products of origin animal and so-called contact products, as intended eu legislation that has expanded the competences of this service.

During the meeting, introduced by the Secretary-General of the associations, Salvatore Avena, the presidents of the agents seafarers, Giorgio Bucchioni, freight forwarders, Andrea Fontana, and of the customs officers, Bruno Pisano, have highlighted how there is disproportion between the number of veterinarians and the amount of work in what is the second Italian port for handling of containers in relation to other ports that have staff objectively disproportionate in relation to their trades. Despite this - the three presidents emphasized - up to today the veterinary service has always responded promptly to the task of controls, with a working volume of 13 thousand certificates the year carried out by three officials, but the risk that this effectiveness is lacking is real and that is what you have to be able to avoid before it causes economic and image damage.

Undersecretary Costa has proposed several possible solutions: those contingent with temporary transfer or with the agreements with ASL staff and the structural ones after the completion of the new competitions, even if - he specified - other possibilities may derive from the recovery of the rankings.

In the coming days at the Ministry is already scheduled a technical meeting with the associations and the Undersecretary Costa has assured that he will be interested, in having regard also to that meeting, in order to resolve the matter with the urgency due aware that a choice is still needed policy that adapts veterinary facilities to traffic flows.