Italy's parliament——High-class errand boys

　　意大利议会：高级服务生

　　Parliamentary workers are facing a cut in their generous pay

　　议会的工作人员们面临着丰厚薪水削减的窘境。

　　Gold braid and a golden job

　　金色穗带与金饭碗

　　TO EARN 136,000 ($181,590), a browse of the internet suggests, you need to be an IT operations director at a British firm, governor of New York state—or an usciere (usher) in the Italian parliament. An usciere's duties include carrying messages, accompanying visitors and looking dignified in uniforms laden with gold braid. The sole occupational hazard is of a punch in the eye while intervening in the occasional brawl between lawmakers.

　　在网友们的心目中，如果想要赚取136,000，你需要成为英国公司里的TI运营主管，或者纽约州的州长，抑或意大利国会里的招待员。国会招待员的指责包括收发信息，游客陪同以及身着缀着金色穗带的制服以保持高贵庄严的形象。而这个职业唯一的职业病就是在国会议员们偶尔争吵上去劝架的时候会被误伤打成乌眼青。

　　Now, however, the uscieri face a second danger: a cut in their salaries. In May, Matteo Renzi's government put a 240,000 cap on annual public-sector earnings. That will directly affect “only” about 130 of Italy's 2,300 parliamentary employees. But other salaries are to be reduced to keep pay differentials the same. Earnings of an usher nearing retirement are expected to drop over a three-year period from 136,000 to a miserly 100,000-105,000.

　　现如今，这些国会招待员们面临着第二个危机,他们工资的削减问题。今年五月，伦齐政府在年度公共部门收入上仅仅投入了240,000。这意味着2300名国会雇佣员工中“只有”130名会受到影响。然而其他人的薪水也会被削减，以保证薪酬差异一致。一名临近退休的招待员在三年之内很可能从 136,000 降到吝啬的100,000-105,000。

　　Last month several hundred parliamentary workers besieged a meeting of deputies who had gathered to agree on a draft plan. As the deputies left, they encountered a barrage of ironic applause and shouts of “Didn't touch your own salaries, did you?” This unprecedented scene was a foretaste of the difficulties Mr Renzi faces as he attempts to take on entrenched interests in Italian society.

　　上个月，数百名国会工作人员包围住一群正在开会拟定计划草案的国会议员。当议员们离开的时候，讽刺的掌声与嘘声此起彼伏：“没能波及自己的薪水是不是很开心?”这种前所未有的场面预示着伦齐先生改革意大利社会的既得利益时将压力山大。

　　The speaker of the lower house reminded the protesters that beyond Montecitorio, the palace housing the chamber, there was a real country—one where more than a decade of economic stagnation has reduced real GDP per person to the level of 1998. Inside parliament, years of long service have kept salaries rising inexorably. Figures leaked to a television reporter last year showed that most parliamentary workers could expect their salaries to quadruple in real terms over a 40-year career.

　　下议院发言人提醒抗议者，在蒙地奇拖利欧的宫殿外才是真正的意大利,超过十年经济停滞，实际人均GDP已经降至1998年的水平。在国会内，常年的服务使得国会内工作人员的薪水疯狂上涨。一些人告诉电视台的记者，在去年，多数的国会工作人员有望当工龄超过四十年的时候，自己的薪水可以涨到目前水平的三倍。

　　“The justification for all this is a word, ‘autodichia', the doctrine that says parliament should have total freedom to manage itself so it does not come under pressure from the government,” says Sergio Rizzo, co-author of “La Casta”, a best-selling book on the privileges of Italy's political class. Talks between the government and the trade unions representing the uscieri will take place in the next few weeks. They'll need a big table: there are 11 unions who have members working in the lower house and 14 in the Senate.

　　而这一切的理由全都是一个字眼,“autodichia”，即国会应该有完整的自由来自我管理，只有这样它才不会受到来自政府的压力。意大利政治阶级权贵们的畅销书La Casta的合编者Sergio Rizzo如是说。政府与代表招待员们的谈判联盟应该在未来几周进行对话。他们需要一个大的平台,因为有11个工会联盟都有来自下议院的工作者并且有14名成员是来自参议院。

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