A work-to-rule protest by Alitalia cabin and ground staff may be declared illegal by a commission responsible for governing strikes in public services in Italy.
Alitalia service has been disrupted all week with hundreds of flight cancellations because Alitalia employees have decided to ''go by the book'' in regard to rules and regulations concerning safety and security.
The labor action was called by unions as a means to reopen negotiations with a group of Italian investors set to acquire the airline's flight operations and set up a new national carrier to replace the bankrupt Alitalia.
The unions, which represent the majority of cabin and ground staff, are unhappy over the criteria to be used to hire Alitalia staff for the new airline which will leave some 4,000 people, and perhaps as many as 9,000, jobless.
According to the chairman of the watchdog strike commission, Antonio Martone, the work-to-rule action appears to be a ''clear violation of strike regulations'' because it is, in reality, ''a nitpicking strike''.
''For years rules and regulations have been applied in a certain way without any problems. And now, from one day to the next, they are being strictly enforced and this is creating massive problems,'' Martone observed.
''If there is now a real reason to enforce important norms, like those on security, then they (the unions) must explain to us why this was not done before,'' he added.
According to Martone, the work-to-rule action represents ''a violation of good faith and correctness'' and the commission ''must evaluate whether legal action should be taken for the unjustified disruption of a public service''.
The commission chief added that he had asked authorities in Rome and Milan to give him a full report on what has occurred at airports there.
Martone's hard line has been echoed by Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi who said on Thursday that ''the problem now is one of law and order''.
''It is my view that illegal labor action has interrupted or, at best, hindered a public service. This because applying the letter of the need not be literal,'' the minister added.
Unions have replied that their actions were not a strike in any form but were in response to the general climate of uncertainty and unease among employees over their future.
According to the unions, Alitalia management ''has added to the problem by cancelling, for no apparent reason, flights which were manned and ready to take off''.
