"Cassa Edile Awards," an award for the virtuous

Quality stamp for GCF and for GEFER

Both GCF and Gefer, honoured with the prestigious award now in its fifth edition, will be able to bear the "Cassa Edile Awards" stamp. An innovative award that does not emphasize and recognize primates but values or, rather, the primacy of values within the world of work.

Cassa Edile Awards is a project conceived by the Construction Fund of Bari, organized by the Commissione Nazionale Paritetica delle Casse Edili (CNCE) and promoted by SAIE, the Bari Construction Fair, the largest community of companies, professionals and associations in the construction industry.

The award, recognized by the Italian Construction Funds and Edilcasse, is given to workers, companies and consultants who have distinguished themselves for their virtuous behaviour and is intended to be, as CNCE's President Dario Firsech explains, "an opportunity to formally thank those who compete fairly by respecting the rules, labour contracts and workers in the construction industry".

For the 2023 edition, as many as 90 Construction Funds have carried out a selective analysis of more than 110,000 companies -90% of the sector: 8 billion declared wages for 700 million hours worked- evaluating exclusively ethical criteria and handing the seal of approval to 11,000 companies (10%) 4,000 consultants and workers.

A shortlist of virtuous representatives of the construction sector, of its positive values, of that style of doing without subterfuge and without shortcuts that the award wants to point to as an example.

There were four categories for the business segment in recognition, respectively, of continuity and timeliness in payments (Sprint), of the company's commitment in terms of hours worked (Top player), of fairness in contributions (Fair Play) and of the consistency of contributions paid (Dream Team). In all four categories, GCF and Gefer were given quality reports by the relevant building societies (among them Como, Catanzaro, Florence, Milan, Venice, Verona, Trieste, Alessandria, Interprovinciale del Veneto).

Public recognition and praising, moreover, on October 20 at Saie Bari, at the Fiera del Levante Congress Centre, for those ranked in the top positions of the various award categories. Also taking the stage among them was Dr. Andrea Mignacco, administrative manager representing GCF, which, with a contribution of 1,711,553.61 euros, won third place for the Dream Team category "Regular companies in the current fiscal year that have the highest fully paid contribution".

The Construction Funds represent the first example of a contractually defined system between Business Associations and Workers' Unions. Their purpose is to ensure the application of the national construction collective bargaining agreement and fair competition between companies, as well as to benefit the workers and their households, with benefits that prioritize support for health, education and training expenses. Within this ecosystem of virtuosity and legality, the Cassa Edile Awards aims to highlight how it is possible to reconcile values and results and translate virtuous behaviour into competitive advantage.

“We hope," Fabrizio De Serio, director of Cassa Edile of Bari, stressed to the media, "that in the choices, even at the level of private works, that the stamp will be recognized as a distinctive sign of belonging to a community of decent people and that this can make a difference”.