Change of management at asylum centres: unions fear loss of 40 jobs

From January, the company that provides support at Ticino's federal asylum centres will change. AOZ, the Zurich asylum organisation linked to the city, will be replaced by ORS, a private company belonging to a British multinational group. The decision was made at national level by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).

The change worries the VPOD Ticino union. Co-secretary Edoardo Cappelletti points to a concrete risk to jobs: ORS has already indicated it would not be able to take on the entire current workforce. According to the union's estimates, the new operator would be willing to hire no more than 80 of the 120 people currently employed by AOZ in Ticino, meaning a loss of 40 jobs. Staff work between the Pasture centre in Balerna and the one on via Motta in Chiasso, the latter currently closed because of a temporary drop in migration flows.

Cappelletti also points to a possible worsening of working conditions, since ORS would not be willing to take over the current collective labour agreement. AOZ's agreement is modelled on that of City of Zurich staff and offers greater guarantees. "Questa società ha sede in Svizzera, ma appartiene a una multinazionale che non si è contraddistinta per una spiccata responsabilità sociale" (this company is based in Switzerland but belongs to a multinational group that has not been particularly notable for its social responsibility), the union official said.

On Friday afternoon, staff met with the unions in Balerna to define their demands. The main request is to keep employment as it stands today. Cappelletti is asking for the handover to be supervised by SEM, and is also calling on the Ticino cantonal government and Ticino's delegation to the federal chambers.

Contacted by RSI, SEM guaranteed that "il cambio di fornitore di servizi non comporta alcuna riduzione del personale" (the change of service provider does not involve any reduction in staff). According to the federal office, the choice of ORS was based 60% on quality criteria and only 40% on price.

A multinational business

The outsourcing of tasks related to managing migrants by public administrations covers housing, food, health, order and daily management. The Confederation awarded the relevant contracts to two companies: ORS, which is coming to Ticino, and Convalere, based in Liestal, which is also active at cantonal level in Basel-Landschaft and Aargau and in around fifty municipalities.

ORS is the leading multinational in the asylum sector: besides Switzerland, it operates in Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium and Greece, with contracts in at least six Swiss cantons and around forty municipalities. The company belongs to the British group Serco, which is also active with the US military, the European space agency, and in healthcare and transport.

From 1 October, ORS's new operations director will be Gaby Szöllösy. Before joining ORS, she headed the Conference of Cantonal Social Affairs Directors, the body bringing together cantonal government members responsible for migration, and before that she led communications at SEM, the same office that today awards the contracts.

It remains to be seen whether the Confederation's assurances will be enough to prevent the cuts feared by the union, and whether the handover between the two companies will manage to protect those who work every day in the asylum centres.