Padua, today

A large, widespread factory

The city of Padua has been experiencing in recent years a process of gentrification and touristification. The urban economy of tourist services bases its growth on the precariousness of certain categories of workers, who are more inclined to accept temporary and precarious employment in order to support themselves, even at the cost of seeing some of their rights neglected.

The continuous flow of students arriving in the city to undertake university studies is a fundamental cog in a large, widespread factory made up of shops, supermarkets, bars, restaurants, and many other commercial activities where we too often see precarious and unclear working conditions, grey and undeclared work. The difficulty in reconciling university and work risks undermining the right to education and the psychological and physical health of working students, whose low wages are sometimes insufficient to provide for basic needs such as rent and household utilities, which are constantly increasing. At the same time, the solutions proposed by the university and the regional agency for the right to education are few and insufficient.

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Do you think you're being exploited? Poorly paid? Want to know more about your employment contract or what to do if your employer just won't let you sign it?

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