Today, the Management Committee of the System Authority Port of the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea has approved the report 2023 year, during which the institution committed to the modernisation of the ports of Livorno, Piombino and of the Island of Elba €121.5 million compared to account expenditure capital for investments of €52.6 million in 2022. Of the funds invested in 2023, €82 million was disbursed by the State and allocated in part to interventions for the electrification of the quays of the ports of Livorno, Piombino and Portoferraio (€76.1 million), to the resection of the access channel of the port of Livorno, on the Torre del Marzocco side (three million plus a further 4.3 million in own resources and €13.5 million from an EIB loan) and the acquisition of an area within the Vespucci Freight Village in which to build the project's new cold warehouse Livorno Cold Chain (€1.3 million). On the other hand, the port authority has financed with more than €14 million of own resources other interventions, including dredging works in the port of Livorno (6.8 millions).

In 2023, current account receipts amounted to €48 million euro (+6.9%), including €26.8 million from taxes port and anchorage fees, with an increase of four million over the previous year.

As at 31 December 2023, the administrative surplus a decrease of almost €50 million compared to the at the beginning of the year, totalling €99 million of which €62 used in the 2023 budget coverage of the financing of the planned works.

At today's meeting of the Management Committee, in addition, the 2023 update of the Plan was presented Organic Ports (POP), which was carried out by the in collaboration with ISFORT (Istituto Superiore di Training and Research for Transport) and which highlights how in 2023 the number of port workers decreased by 46 falling from 1,813 in 2022 to 1,767, of which 1,499 are operational (1,632 in 2022) and 268 administrative (181 in 2022). The study finds that the decline in operations is concentrated in the port of Livorno, where the number of employees decreased by 101 units, rather than not in Piombino, where the reduction was 32 employees. In in particular, the total number of employees in the port of Livorno has suffered a sharp contraction, especially among companies concessionaires (-59) and, to a lesser extent, among port companies authorised to carry out port operations and services (-20 employees). In the course of 2023, the administrative functions in the Port of Livorno, in particular in the companies referred to in Article 18, increased by 80 employees compared to 155 in 2022. In the port of Piombino's workforce is made up of 272 people, with a decrease of -8.4% compared to 2022 due to, also in this case, from the decrease in the number of operatives, which passed between 2022 and 2023 from 271 to 232 people, while the administrative staff are increased by seven units, from 26 to 33 people.

"From 2019 onwards - explains the Organic Ports Plan - the The decline in port staff was rather homogeneous on all components of port work, including due to the of the Covid-19 pandemic event. However, while the seem to have recovered in the period 2022-2023 the cumulative reduction from 2020 to 2022 (with a positive differential of 13 units between 2009 and 2023), those in operation, after a timid rebound in 2022, they seem to have resumed the downward curve (compared to 2019, 82 employees are missing)'.

Among other insights, the POT analyzes the tasks specifying that to date seven main tasks absorb more than two-thirds of the workforce (69.3% of the total) and are related to the operational activities of loading and unloading of the vessel (coordinator/shift supervisor, crane operator multi-purpose, forklift driver, landing operations officer, lashing operations). The performance of these tasks requires, in the 44% of cases, a skilled worker (coordinator/shift supervisor, crane operator and multi-purpose rally operator), while for all other tasks (25.3%) a general worker is sufficient. The Figures white-collar workers account for a much larger share of the compared to the operatives, settling at just over 10.5% of the total workforce (administrative employees, operational and technical). The remaining 20.2% of employees are divided between managerial figures and with specialized technical tasks (refrigeration managers and technicians, experts, etc.).

The Organic Ports Plan also underlines how the position of the of the Port Employment Agency, authorized pursuant to art. 17, paragraph 5, the provision of temporary work within the airport of Livorno, remains rather precarious. Critical data continues to be represented by the fragility of the labour pool compared to the total workforce of port companies specialised in the procurement of portions of the operational cycle, employees with functions similar to those of the pool and with which The latter then enters into direct competition. In this regard, The document notes that between 2021 and 2022, the volume of the Agency's goodwill has steadily declined in the face of instead of an increase in the number of shifts worked by companies pursuant to Article 16. Over the past year, however, both the Agency's start-ups and the total shifts of port companies recorded a sharp contraction compared to the previous year.