The debate on concertation is relaunched

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The debate on the revision of Italy's tripartite incomes policy agreement of July 1993 was enlivened by a proposal for a new "social pact" put forward by the Treasury minister, Azeglio Ciampi, in August 1998 and by the presentation at the beginning of September of the "Treu document" on concertation. The two proposals advocate the close involvement of the industrial relations parties in promoting economic growth and giving greater stability and consensus to economic and social policy decisions.

At the end of August 1998, the Treasury minister, Azeglio Ciampi, advanced (in an interview which appeared in Il Sole 24 ore on 21 August) a proposal for a new "social pact" (patto sociale), or at any rate for a new phase of social dialogue and consultation ("concertation") on the model set out in the tripartite national agreement of 23 July 1993 .

The Ciampi proposal

The Treasury minister's proposal is based on the one hand on recognition of the importance of the concertation method, and on the other on new objectives: greater investment and more work flexibility. The aim is to complete the trade-off between incomes policy and employment policy envisaged by the 1993 agreement, but still not fulfilled in its second part.

Mr Ciampi explicitly referred to this exchange in his press interview, pointing out the need for "a sort of twofold commitment by the social partners which should operate simultaneously. On the one hand, the trade unions should push for greater flexibility of markets, especially the labour market; on the other, the employers should commit themselves to investment and stability".

Relaunching concertation in Italy will be the consequence of the assessment of the July 1993 tripartite agreement scheduled to take place four years after its signing and formally begun by the government in September 1997, when it appointed a committee chaired by Professor Gino Giugni (IT9709212F).

The most positive effects of the 1993 agreement for the Italian economy have arisen from the new incomes policy that it introduced, based on two fundamental principles: reference to the "planned inflation rate", which has replaced the traditional wage indexation system (the scala mobileor sliding-scale mechanism); and the "institutionalisation of participation", with two annual meetings between the social partners and the Government, one in May prior to issue of the annual "document for economic and financial planning" (Documento di programmazione economica e finanziaria, Dpef), and one in September on the occasion of the budget law. It is these two principles, in fact, that have enabled Italy to meet the economic convergence criteria set by the Maastricht Treaty (halving the public deficit to below 3%, reduction inflation by around six percentage points to less than 2%, and a programme to reduce the national debt) and to achieve the goal of being among the first group of countries to implement the single European currency - an achievement which was officially recognised on 2 May 1998.

The new collective bargaining structure consisting of two levels - a national sectoral level and a decentralised level (company or territorial) - rather than the multiple and repetitive levels of the past, was the second major change introduced by the July 1993 agreement. Analysis of first- and second-level collective bargaining over the last five years, during a period crucial for the functioning of the new rules regulating the Italian industrial relations system, highlights their central role in achievement of the abovementioned goal (IT9805227F). Also to be stressed is the equally fundamental contribution made by the cooperative behaviour of all the industrial relations actors, both private and public.

The main findings of the committee set up to assess the July 1993 agreement confirmed these positive effects, but they also emphasised a number of shortcomings, suggesting appropriate and moderate adjustments to deal with them (IT9803223F). In particular, the negotiations over the renewal of the metalworking sectoral agreement signed in early 1997 (IT9702202F) had already shown that it was necessary to make alterations to a bargaining structure conceived in a period of high inflation. It was therefore suggested that priority should be given to decentralised bargaining at the local and company level, and that the two-tier system should be more specific as to the issues to be negotiated at the different levels. Consequently, it was proposed that action should be taken to consolidate participation through bipartite bodies, and also regarding company-level workers' representation and workers' rights in the area of "new and atypical jobs". On this latter point, it should be noted that discussion on the proposed "Jobs Statute" for those in particular forms of atypical work has made little progress (IT9709310F). Moreover, active employment policies, which were also among the main objectives set by the July 1993 agreement, figure among the failed objectives, also due the scant effect of the Pact for Employment of September 1996 (IT9702201F), which became law in 1997 IT9707308F).

The new pact proposed by the Mr Ciampi is therefore an attempt to start again from this point, seeking to boost employment policy by means of a trade-off between: a new investment policy among employers, which would pledge to keep constant their unit profits, hence increasing total profits by means of greater production volumes which would be made possible by higher employment; and greater labour flexibility guaranteed by the trade unions. Above all, from the point of view of concertation, this is a matter of shifting the emphasis from stability, which was distinctive of the first phase, to growth, which should be the central focus of the phase about to begin.

The reactions of the social partners and the Treu document

Mr Ciampi's proposal aroused mixed reactions, but also some consensus, as was to be expected. The employers have pointed out that the proposal was already contained in the 1993 agreement, while also emphasising that the problem still lies in reducing the non-wage component of labour costs. The unions for their part have endorsed the basic idea, although they stress that forms of labour flexibility are already widespread in the country.

However, consensus between both sides of industry has been expressed above all concerning a document drawn up by the Minister of Labour, Tiziano Treu, and submitted to the social partners in early September 1998.

The "Treu document" starts with the recognition of the main goals achieved by the July 1993 tripartite agreement. It then goes on to acknowledge that the model and procedures introduced by the agreement have given stability and continuity to relations between government, trade unions and employers' associations. This factor has given rise to the greater responsibility of the social actors, and it has so far proved essential for Italy's economic and social modernisation. The document thus proposes "a new phase of concertation aimed at achieving goals of economic development and employment growth", and centred on:

• confirmation of the incomes policy, though it should now be oriented more towards employment creation and enlargement of the productive base;

• strengthening of concertation, with rules ensuring the greater autonomy and responsibility of the social partners; and

• consolidation of the linkages among macroeconomic policies, labour market policies, and employment policies, with a closer association between the central and decentralised levels of income policy.

Among these objectives, one notes the major emphasis placed on concertation rules, which reflect those adopted by the Treaty of Amsterdam's new provisions on social policy (EU9707135F). As regards social policy matters in particular, the Treu document provides for "prior discussions", which may set a schedule for appraisals and recommended alterations. For matters affecting labour relations at the decentralised and company levels, a system of rules and bilateral relationships should be introduced, in keeping with the objectives of concertation.

Thus, the document envisages a system of prior consultation between the government and the social partners on the overall objectives of measures, which will enable them to state their positions on the provisions and on their social and economic effects. During these discussions, indeed, the social partners could directly reach an agreement which determines the contents of the measure in question. Moreover, the new procedural arrangement would also concern the national transposition of European Union Directives (a case in point being the experience with the transposition of the Council Directive on European Works Councils (94/45/EC) - TN9807201S).

Finally, the Treu document also envisages the extension of this method of concertation to the decentralised institutions and actors in the regional, provincial and municipal administrations, with procedures and officials able to give it local effect.

Commentary

The Treu document exemplifies and seeks to implement the model of social concertation set out in the Agreement on social policy reached in Maastricht and now incorporated in the Treaty of Amsterdam, which is explicitly mentioned in the document. The government would therefore seek prior consent by the social partners to measures that it intends to introduce. Although the tripartite agreement of 23 July 1993 already provided for a similar form of concertation, the Treu document describes and formalises an authentic "concertation structure". Thus, a commitment is made explicit to a "strong" procedure of involvement of the industrial relations actors, intended to give greater stability and consensus to economic and social policy decisions, while strengthening and developing concertation at the local level as well.

In this, it is particularly important to stress the growing influence that European Union initiatives are having on national-level industrial relations, not only in terms of their contents, but also, and in some ways more significantly, as far as their rules are concerned (Serafino Negrelli, University of Brescia).