EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION
| ITALY |
| ASSOCIAZIONE IMPRENDITORIALE EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION |
Organization formed by employers to co-ordinate their economic and political interests.
There are many of these associations, not because of ideological reasons similar to those relating to trade unions but because of other factors such as type of ownership (public or private); size of the member companies; and sector: industry, services, artisanal production, agriculture or commerce. Despite this diversification, the most powerful such association in Italy is Confindustria (General Confederation of Italian Industry), which groups together private companies of various sizes in all industrial sectors, including construction, and some service sectors, although not artisanal enterprises. In addition, the Confederation plays the dual role of acting on behalf of private employers in their relations with trade unions and of acting as the employers' common representative vis-à-vis those responsible for economic and industrial policy. At the end of 1988, Confindustria had 131,150 member companies (employing over three million workers), 94 per cent. of them being companies with fewer than 100 employees.
Companies belong to Confindustria through their membership of associations of industrialists grouped on a territorial (horizontal) and product sector (vertical) basis, which are in turn members of the Confederation. There are 106 territorial, 20 regional and 96 product sector associations.
Confapi (Italian Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) represents smaller private companies. It was set up in 1947 because of the need for an autonomous body to represent this group, and has about 30,000 member companies with almost 900,000 employees.
Public sector industrial and service enterprises (state-owned and controlled) formerly belonged to two separate associations: Intersind , set up in 1958 after the disaffiliation of these enterprises from Confindustria and grouping together the enterprises (329, with 383,027 employees in 1998) which make up the IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) and EFIM (body for financing and shareholding in manufacturing industry); and secondly, ASAP (Petrochemicals Industry Employers' Association), formed in 1960 and grouping together the enterprises (101, employing a total of under 100,000 workers) of the ENI group. At the end of 1993, ASAP was disbanded and the ENI-group enterprises it had represented joined the respective Confindustria sector groupings alongside the IRI-group enterprises.
Artisanal enterprises, for both goods and services, belong to their own associations reflecting their political affiliations: centre-right ( Confartigianato , the General Italian Confederation of Artisans) and left ( CNA , the National Confederation of Artisans).
The larger agricultural enterprises belong to Confagricoltura (General Confederation of Italian Agriculture), which represents the large agricultural capitalist entrepreneurs, as well as individual and associated small farmers and the relevant co-operatives and societies. All in all, this group numbers 1,380,000 members, representing 676,500 enterprises (in1988). Most small farmers, however, belong to various separate organizations, depending on their political affiliations: Coldiretti (National Small Farmers' Confederation), which is traditionally allied with the Christian Democrats; and Confcoltivatori , a predominantly left-wing body.
Commercial and tourism enterprises are also organized on political lines: Confcommercio (centre) and Confesercenti left. The leading sectoral employers' associations include Federmeccanica, Federtessile and others such as the more recently formed Federation of Advanced Service Industries , uniting enterprises with specific industrial relations policies which diverge from the traditional policies of Confindustria and Confcommercio. The role of such organizations has become more prominent in recent years.
Like the trade union organizations, employers' associations have a de facto identity, but not a de jure identity. In addition, even in the private sector, centralization is more for organizational than for bargaining purposes, since the largest enterprises still operate with considerable freedom of action.
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.