A calm and determined protest, visible among the counters of pharmacies throughout Sardinia . There are over 300 employed pharmacists who from today wear a badge to say out loud, but without interrupting the service: "We defend our profession".

The mobilization was launched by UILTuCS Sardegna, which shines the spotlight on a forgotten category: graduates, updated, exposed every day to great health responsibilities, yet treated economically as generic workers. In some cases, with lower wages than those of a sales clerk.

"They are not just counter staff - says Cristiano Ardau, General Secretary of UILTuCS Sardinia - but health professionals. Their role is fundamental in the health network, but it has been undervalued for too long".

According to the union, in Italy pharmacists' hourly wages are less than half those of their European colleagues. Holiday shifts, work under pressure, continuous training and direct responsibilities - such as inoculating vaccines during the flu campaign - do not find any specific economic recognition, despite the public funding allocated to pharmacies.

The most critical point is the stalemate in the renewal of the national collective agreement. After seven meetings with Federfarma, no concrete proposal has arrived. The only offer put on the table? An increase of just 120 euros gross, deemed "unacceptable" by UILTuCS.

Also worrying workers is the hypothesis, already on the table, of introducing hybrid figures: operators without a degree who could still dispense drugs, at lower costs for the owners.

"Ours is a new and modern form of protest," Ardau emphasizes, "without strikes or interruptions of service, but which aims to inform citizens and open a real discussion with Federfarma and the institutions."

(Unioneonline/Fr. Me.)

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