2000 Annual Review for Italy

This record reviews 2000's main developments in industrial relations in Italy.

Political developments

Local elections were held in 15 regions on 16 April 2000. The coalition of centre-right parties claimed a success, winning a majority in eight regions, including all those regions in the north of Italy which were involved in the elections. The centre-left coalition which forms the national government won in the remaining seven regions. The success of the centre-right coalition was significant in terms of the number of votes won. The local elections had important implications at national level – Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema resigned following the defeat of the centre-left coalition. At the beginning of May 2000, a new government came into power, still supported by a centre-left coalition - including the Democratic Left (Democratici di Sinistra, Ds), the Italian People's Party (Partito Popolare Italiano, Ppi), the Democrats (Democratici), the Democratic Union for Europe (Unione Democratici per l'Europa, Udeur) the Party of Italian Communists (Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, PdCI), the Greens (Verdi), Italian Renovation (Rinnovamento Italiano, RI) and the Italian Democratic Socialists (Socialisti Democratici Italiani, Sdi). The new Prime Minister is Giuliano Amato.

On 21 May 2000, two referenda on labour-related issues (out of a total of seven questions put to the electorate) failed due to a low turn-out (IT0005267N). The issues concerned were the regulation of individual dismissals and the possibility of a direct check-off of trade union dues from wages. The three main trade union confederations - the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl) and the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil) - expressed satisfaction with the results of the referenda on labour-related issues, as they considered them to be an "anti-union" initiative.

The most significant political event of 2001 will be the national general elections, which will be held in the spring.

Collective bargaining

At the end of November 2000, there were 49 industry-wide collective agreements in force, covering about 7.5 million workers. These data refer to the National Institute of Statistics (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, Istat) panel on sectoral bargaining, which includes 80 agreements, covering 11.5 million employees. The 49 sectoral agreements in force represented 63.2% of Italy's total paybill, a decrease of some 20% compared with the same period in 1999. The fact that there were agreements awaiting renewal was a specific problem in the transport and communications sector and in the public administration, where only 19.4% and 12.1% of the respective sectoral paybills were covered by agreements in force.

An interesting element of collective bargaining during 2000 was the increasing attempts to define new sectoral agreements for those industries which have been affected by liberalisation and privatisation processes. The first industry-wide agreement of this type was the telecommunications sector agreement, signed in June 2000 (IT0007158F). Telecommunications is the sector where liberalisation and privatisation are most highly developed. Developments to date include privatisation of the former monopoly telecommunications organisation (Telecom Italia) and the emergence of many new private providers. This also created a fragmentation of sectoral collective bargaining, with different employers applying distinct collective agreements (either company-level ones, as at Telecom Italia and Wind, or industry-wide ones, such as the metalworking agreement in the case of Omnitel), as well as a complex representation pattern, with both employees and employers represented by various sectoral federations. The new agreement, which was signed by the Confindustria employers' confederation and the Cgil, Cisl and Uil union confederations, defined a new common set of rules, in order to establish a "level playing field" from a collective bargaining point of view.

Similar efforts are now under way in other public utilities, such as gas and water distribution, electric power and the railways. In these sectors, however, liberalisation (and sometimes privatisation) is in its early stages and the possible problems of fragmented collective bargaining and representation are, to a great extent, yet to arise. In the railways sector, in particular, the new sectoral agreement is in some ways part of the restructuring process of the Italian state railways (Ferrovie dello Stato, FS), which was agreed upon in November 1999 (IT9912349F). Bargaining over the new industry-wide agreement ended in a stalemate at the close of 2000 and the Minister of Transport subsequently began mediation in order to help the parties resume negotiations.

Pay

In the year to November 2000, the average increase in collectively-agreed pay was 2.0%, according to Istat data: a level which compares with an actual inflation rate of around 2.5% in 2000.

Working time

Working time remains a prominent issue in collective bargaining, particularly in terms of flexible arrangements. Companies are increasingly demanding more flexibility in the utilisation of their workforce in order to be more responsive to demand cycles. For instance, a July 2000 agreement for the road haulage, deliveries and logistics sector (IT0009360F) introduced, for new recruits who are to work in the e-commerce area, an average working week of 38 hours, calculated over a four-week period, with actual working hours permitted to vary between 30 and 48 per week and between five and 10 per day.

A "radical" type of working time flexibility was that envisaged by the proposal to introduce "on-call jobs" at the Electrolux-Zanussi electrical appliances concern. The proposal was eventually rejected by a workforce referendum, but triggered a debate among labour law scholars and caused divisions among unions (IT0007159F). "On-call jobs" would have resulted in the creation of a group of workers, hired on an open-ended contract, available to be called on under certain circumstances (particular production requirements, "non-programmable tasks" or substitution for absent workers), but who would not have been paid at other times. Another example was the agreement on "extremely" flexible working time agreed at Zf Marine (a German-owned car component manufacturer) in Padova) in order to tackle sudden demand shifts (IT0001138N).

Job security

Employment preservation and creation continued to be important issues for collective bargaining in 2000. Agreements which envisage the creation of new jobs often introduce specific forms of work flexibility, notably fixed-term employment and working time flexibility. This takes place at both company level and at territorial level. An example of a local agreement for fostering employment is the "Milan employment pact", which aims to support job creation for specific disadvantaged groups. There was a great deal of discussion concerning this agreement's approval (IT9908251F) and the pact was eventually signed despite the strong opposition of Cgil (IT0003264N).

In terms of restructuring processes involving job losses, "proactive" measures, such as reskilling, outplacement and reindustrialisation, may supplement more traditional "passive" tools, such as the use of the Wages Guarantee Fund. An example was the April agreement on the closure of the Goodyear Latina plant (tyre manufacturing), which was reached with the mediation of the Ministry of Labour (IT0005153N).

Training and skills development

The shortcomings of the Italian training system were at the centre of an extensive debate in 2000, which prominently involved the social partners (IT0002144F). The social partners consider that a wider use of vocational training, in connection with work traineeships, might help reduce the unemployment rate, especially among young people. The October 2000 agreement on immigrant workers in the Veneto region (IT0011362F) recognises the importance of training as a key factor in the access to employment and represents a particular example of joint efforts of the social partners in this field.

Legislative developments

The major legislative changes in 2000 concerned part-time work, the status of unemployed people, the regulation of the right to strike in essential public services and health and safety norms.

In January 2000, the government approved a legislative decree reforming the rules on part-time work (IT0002261F) and implementing EU Directive 97/81/EC. The new regulations should serve to support the spread of part-time work in Italy, by introducing a greater degree of flexibility into framework regulation, particularly in the area of working time (through the possibility of a more flexible distribution of working hours and the repeal of a ban on extra hours and overtime). The actual definition of flexible arrangements is largely left to collective bargaining.

In April 2000, the government approved a decree-law which introduces important innovations concerning unemployment status and job placement services (IT0005355F). One novelty is the certification of the status of unemployed people. Job centres will also organise new services for unemployed people, such as counselling and schemes aimed at facilitating entry into the labour market by means of training or reskilling.

A reform of law 146/1990, which regulates the right to strike in essential public services (IT0004266F), was approved by parliament in April 2000. The main points of the reform cover the following areas:

• the terms for the notification of a strike;

• the obligatory activation of conciliation procedures before a strike is called;

• the guarantee of minimum essential services;

• the introduction of specific sanctions to prevent the so-called "announcement effect" (when a strike announced is called off at the last minute); and

• the strengthening of the role of the Guarantee Authority (Commissione di Garanzia).

The organisation and role of the social partners

In May 2000, Confindustria named as its new president Antonio D'Amato (IT0006268F, IT0005152N and IT0003148N). He was appointed by the Confindustria executive committee on March 2000 and then elected by the assembly in May. He is the first president to come from the south of Italy. His appointment saw some divisions among employers, as some of the main Italian companies did not support his nomination. Mr D'Amato's programme stresses the need for modernisation, in order to increase the competitiveness of Italian firms. In his opinion, reforms should include a deregulation of the labour market, a substantial cut in tax rates and a thorough transformation of the welfare system.

Two trade union confederations, Uil and Cisl, appointed new general secretaries in 2000. In June, Luigi Angeletti was elected general secretary of Uil (IT0007156N), and asserted the need for union unity and the relaunch of concertation. The new general secretary of Cisl is Savino Pezzotta, who was named by the executive committee in December. He will remain in charge until Cisl's next congress, which will be held in 2001. The former general secretary, Sergio D'Antoni, resigned in order to concentrate on the creation of a new political foundation (IT0010165F).

Industrial action

In the period from January to November 2000 a total of some 615,000 working days (4.9 million hours) were lost due to industrial action, according to Istat provisional data. This represented a reduction of 20.4% compared with the same period of 1999. Strikes were concentrated particularly in the transport and communications sector (31.1% of the total days lost) and in the metalworking industry (23.2%).

National Action Plan (NAP) for employment

The three main pillars of Italy's 2000 NAP, which was approved in June 2000 (IT0006356F), are improving employability, the development of entrepreneurship and the strengthening of equal opportunities policies for women and men.

The social partners were involved in the elaboration of the NAP and in general they agreed with its provisions. However, they had some criticisms, mainly concerning the delay in the reform of job placement services and of the system of "social shock absorbers", which ease the blow of redundancies (IT9802319F). Moreover, Confindustria stressed the need to reduce both labour costs and the level of taxation. According to Cgil, the focus should be on the quality of change: there is a risk of introducing excessive flexibility which might lead to a reduction in workers' rights. There are also some divisions between unions, mainly between Cgil and Cisl. These concern Cisl's proposals for geographically-based wage flexibility, which Cgil rejects.

Equal opportunities and diversity issues

One of the main objectives of Italy's 2000 NAP was strengthening equal opportunities for women and men. The main instruments identified in the field of equal opportunities policies by the NAP are the support of female entrepreneurship and the development of part-time work. Further, it is hoped that the reconciliation of work and family life can be promoted by the full implementation of the provisions introduced by the new Italian law on parental leave, which transposed EU Directive 96/34/EC on parental leave and was finally passed in March 2000 (IT9910347F), and by the tax relief for families laid down by the 2000 state budget.

A reform of law 125/91 on equal opportunities was enacted in May 2000. Thus, legislative decree 196 of 23 May 2000: strengthened the role of equal opportunities advisers and increased their resources; strengthened the sanctions system, especially in the public administration; and increased the possibility of funding voluntary affirmative actions by adding new potential beneficiaries. A new deadline has been set for the presentation of compulsory equal opportunities plans by public administration bodies and specific sanctions have been introduced (a prohibition of new recruitment) should they fail to comply.

At company level, Electrolux-Zanussi confirmed its commitment to equal opportunities by supplementing existing provisions on gender discrimination with new anti-discriminatory procedures, which besides combating racial, religious and political forms of discrimination, also takes into account psychological forms of discrimination, known as "mobbing".

Information and consultation of employees

There were no significant initiatives in the field of the information and consultation of employees in Italy in 2000.

On the issue of workplace democracy, Cisl and Cgil still hold different positions (IT9909345F, IT0007270F). Cisl, at a conference held in November 2000, supported the spread of a participatory model based on worker shareholding and the presence of workers' representatives on company boards.

At European level, in 2000, following the alliance between the Fiat and General Motors (GM) motor manufacturers (IT0004151F), there were joint meetings and contacts between the European Works Councils (EWC s) of the two groups, organised by the European Metalworkers' Federation. The EWCs agreed a common strategy in order to cooperate and avoid employment reductions and the worsening of working conditions, and at the same time safeguard existing collective agreements. According to the Italian union confederations, market globalisation and economic integration at European level will require new forms of workers' representation. EWCs are an important element of such future arrangements. However, their actual tasks and entitlements remain an open question, notably whether their activity in the field of information and consultation will extend to formal collective bargaining (interestingly, the GM EWC reached an innovative agreement with management on the implications of the Fiat-GM alliance for employees and industrial relations in July).

New forms of work

"Atypical" work is an increasingly important component of employment in Italy, accounting for around two-thirds of all new jobs created. In July 2000, fixed-term employment amounted to 10.3% of the total (8.9% for men and 12.4% for women), while part-time work represented 8.9% of overall employment (3.6% for men and 16.9% for women). Another form of atypical employment which is of particular importance in Italy is what is known as consultancy and freelance work "coordinated" by an employer (collaborazione coordinata e continuativa), which probably involves around 1 million people. An increasing number of people entering this work arrangement are young people and women, especially in the south of Italy. There is a legislative initiative under way which aims to extend union rights and basic protections to the workers involved. In addition, collective bargaining has led to significant agreements which aim at combining work flexibility with a series of rights and guarantees for the workers concerned (IT0011273F).

During 2000, significant steps were made towards the extension of temporary agency work in the public administration. In May, a framework agreement was concluded by the unions and the public sector bargaining agency (Aran) and supplementary agreements in the various subsectors of the public administration were reached in the following months (IT0008161N). The framework agreement specified that it is possible to use temporary agency workers only to meet periodical, non-continuous or exceptional personnel shortages and that the proportion of temporary agency workers cannot exceed 7% of the workers employed on open-ended contracts in each administrative body.

Other relevant developments

An important issue confronting the government and social partners is health and safety at work, given the high and increasing level of industrial accidents (IT0011168F). During the first nine months of 2000, accidents at work increased by 1.6% (to 812,105 cases) compared with the same period in 1999. The increase was even higher, at 19.2%, for fatal accidents: during the first eight months of 2000, 857 people died at work, compared with 719 during the same period in 1999. In May 2000, the Ministry of Labour launched a "plan for occupational health and safety" to prevent accidents, support investments in health and safety and monitor the situation. In September 2000, Cgil, Cisl and Uil organised the first national assembly of workplace health and safety representatives. The representatives asked for: increased employee participation in health and safety issues; more attention to working conditions in collective bargaining; and stronger efforts to implement prevention measures on the part of the public authorities.

Outlook

An important focus of industrial relations in 2001 is likely to be industry-wide bargaining. First, negotiations over agreements for the sectors undergoing liberalisation processes (gas and water, and electric power) should define a common framework for both the present operators and prospective new entrants. Possible difficulties may arise from the fact that the liberalisation process is not particularly advanced in these sectors and therefore it is likely that the new entrants will have a limited voice in the bargaining process.

In the negotiations which led to the telecommunications sector agreement in 2000 (see above under "Collective bargaining"), both the employers' associations and the unions knew the situation regarding the different collective agreements applying in the diverse companies, and the features of the distinct industrial relations systems at company level. The task, though a difficult one, was to strike a balance which was acceptable to everyone. In the sectors where negotiations should occur in 2001, it is probably much less clear which regulatory framework will be suitable for the entire sectors.

The rail sector faces a similar situation, since the new industry-wide agreement for railway activities is also an important component of the restructuring process of FS. The objective is to find a set of rules which allow the reorganisation of FS and provide an acceptable reference framework for new operators (or existing local railways which currently apply the local transport sectoral agreement). A further difficulty, in this case, may arise from the high conflict rate which is a characteristic of the transport sector, and the rail sector in particular.

Second, the renewal of the pay provisions of the metalworking agreement, a traditional "pace-setter" in Italian collective bargaining, may signal important trends affecting the overall bargaining structure. On one side, the increase in the inflation rate which was fuelled by the increase in oil prices in 2000 may push unions to ask for significant pay rises. This would be an important test for the incomes policy system introduced by the 1993 national tripartite agreement. On the other, Federmeccanica, the sectoral employers' association and particularly its president, Andrea Pininfarina, has been voicing for some time a demand for a greater decentralisation of the bargaining structure, while the confederal metalworking unions, notably Fiom-Cgil, are opposed to such an option.

Another important factor which may influence industrial relations in 2001 is the result of the spring national elections. Whichever coalition wins the elections – centre-left or centre-right – it will have to handle the revision of the pension reform of 1997 and to take some actions with respect to the reforms of "social shock absorbers" (see above under "National Action Plan (NAP) for employment") and employee representation (IT9804226F), which are still to be discussed in parliament.