First national collective agreement signed for temporary work agencies

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In May 1998, the Italian Association of Temporary Work Agencies and trade unions signed a first national collective agreement covering temporary work agencies.

On 28 May 1998, the Cgil, Cisl and Uil trade union confederations and the Italian Association of Temporary Work Agencies (Assointerim) signed a national collective agreement to regulate the employment relationship between temporary work agencies and temporary agency workers employed both on open-ended and fixed-term contracts. The agreement contains all the provisions which usually regulate employment relationships in the Italian industrial relations system. Temporary agency work has only recently been permitted by law in Italy (IT9804163N)

The important elements of the agreement are the following:

• the duration of the contracts signed with the client undertaking. The duration of the contract can be extended at the most three times but in any case not for more than 24 months;

• job classification. Workers are classified in three different groups - group A includes higher-skilled workers such as executives, middle managers and clerical workers, group B includes skilled workers with high theoretical or practical knowledge, both blue- and white -collars, and group C includes low-skilled workers;

• pay determination. Wages for temporary agency workers should not be lower than wages for the employees of the client undertaking who perform the same activities. Agency workers are also entitled in the same way as client undertaking employees to the pay bonus, the end-of-service allowance, annual leave and any working time reductions;

• union rights. The agreement foresees for temporary agency workers, the right of assembly in the host undertaking, the right to appoint union delegates who have the right to paid leave to perform their role, and the possibility of being elected as members of the executive bodies of the association of temporary workers; and

• industrial relations. A "joint bilateral body" (Ente Bilaterale Paritetico) is established, with the aim of providing services - all financed both by workers and enterprises - for temporary agency workers and in particular,

  • vocational training,

  • mutual management of time off for union representatives,

  • management of joint structures (the observatory on temporary agency work and joint committees and commissions foreseen by the agreement),

  • income support programmes agreed upon by the partners;

  • other kind of services agreed upon by the partners.

Moreover, the agreement regulates workers' wages in the event of of illness or accidents at work and conditions and guarantees for workers in the event of dismissal.

The agreement will expire on 31 December 1999 and states that during its renewal any changes that might occur in the legislation on the regulation of the temporary work relationship will be transposed into the new agreement.

The signatories to the agreement welcomed it with satisfaction. Francesco Salvataggio of Assointerim hopes that the accord and the rules foreseen in it will be understood by the market. For their part, the unions keep stressing the experimental character of the agreement and hope that it will be modified during its implementation. They believe that novelties introduced by the agreement will allow temporary agency workers to count on a sound regulatory and protective framework. Union delegates - stressed Marco Conclave of Alai-Cisl- will represent more than a single enterprise and will be able to operate both in temporary work agencies and in all the enterprises using temporary agency workers.