Wine and Work: the employment challenge

Fourth edition of Wine and Work: Equalitas and Lights On Work together on the theme of the employment challenge. Equalitas President Riccardo Ricci Curbastro: "Social sustainability key piece for wine companies. Investing in training as a lever for personal as well as professional growth."

Fourth edition of Wine and Work, the permanent table promoted by Equalitas and Lights on Work for a collective discussion on the issue of employment as a social right and main driver of sustainable development. At the conference, moderated by Nerina Di Nunzio (marketing and communication expert and university lecturer), training professionals, companies, associations and consortia from the world of wine came together in the magnificent spaces of the Montepulciano Fortress to better orient active labor policies in order to chart a shared path that favors the growth of the Italian wine sector.

At the center of the conference is training as a key asset for the human, as well as professional, growth of workers, in order to encourage innovative and sustainable behavior as a strategic lever of business competitiveness. Sustainability, is in fact one of the assets most sought after by workers, increasingly oriented to companies with a green profile and, in parallel, one of the main drivers of consumer purchases. This is an increasingly topical issue, which not only concerns environmental attention but encompasses all social and human aspects, in terms of satisfying the needs of staff, increasing dedication to work and the well-being of today's and tomorrow's workers. For this reason, during the meeting, the key role of consortia emerged as a driver of investment in the field of training with the aim of avoiding the disconnection between wine companies, territory and human resources. A set of elements aimed at enhancing the natural and unavoidable union that should represent one of the fundamental values of an appellation.

"That of the employment challenge, as the title of the conference states," says Riccardo Ricci Curbastro, President of Equalitas, "is for us one of the essential topics of the current wine market, as well as a founding aspect of Equalitas' certification activity. It therefore increases the need to invest in labor policies, to strengthen the connection between the territory and the skills and traditions of the men and women who are part of it. This connection enshrines the success of the wine, the winery and facilitates the territorial development of the rural reality in which it is rooted; for this reason, it is necessary to intervene with targeted strategies and initiatives in a sustainable way. Despite increasingly complex climatic dynamics and complicit with the evolving trends in the sector, social sustainability, in terms of training, safety and job satisfaction, is now an issue that needs to be questioned for the present and future of the wine market.

The conference was attended by Denis Pantini (Agrifood Business Unit and Wine Monitor Manager), Michele Distefano (Foragri Director), Vincenzo Conso (Foragri President), Paola Parmeggiani (ITS Eat Director), Claudia Piroddi (Barone Ricasoli Quality Manager), Stefano Mantegazza (UILA General Secretary), Silvia Liggieri (Sustainability Manager Consorzio Prosecco Doc), Domenico Bova (ANPAL Servizi Manager). Influential personalities of the sector who took turns during the meeting, sharing the need and urgency to invest in training to know how to respond to the new challenges of the wine market.

In this scenario, the synergic action of companies and institutions is necessary to outline new professional figures, competent on the technical side, sensitive to environmental ethical issues and akin to the value background of the reference reality. This is a direction with a twofold effect: on the one hand, guaranteeing the company a professional profile suited to the increasingly global and innovative wine market, and on the other, an increase in worker awareness and satisfaction, a key element that contributes to the company's development in a sustainable way.