Unions present demands for renewal of metalworking agreement

Download article in original language : IT9809234FIT.DOC

In September 1998, the Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil trade unions presented their platform for negotiations over renewal of the metalworking sectoral agreement. Talks between the unions and the Federmeccanica employers' confederation should conclude by the end of 1998. In view of its traditional role as the "pattern-setting" agreement, the metalworking accord should have a major influence on the forthcoming bargaining round. The main issues addressed in the union platform are workers' rights, working hours, and job creation.

On 10 September 1998, Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil, the three largest trade unions in the metalworking sector, announced their joint platform for negotiations over the renewal of the industry's collective agreement. The drafting of the document encountered some problems and raised various issues. In particular, the setting of precise figures for wage claims and thorough specification of demands regarding working hours were postponed by the three union secretariats until the meeting of the their general councils which was held on 22 September 1998.

The metalworkers' agreement covers around 1.5 million workers, and it has a particularly important place in Italian collective bargaining because of its traditional role as the pattern-setting agreement (IT9702202F). Talks between Fiom, Fim, Uilm and Federmeccanica, the sectoral employers' association affiliated to Confindustria, should conclude by the end of 1998, and their outcome may have a major influence on the bargaining round now getting underway, which will involve more than five million workers and several important categories, like bank workers.

The joint Fiom, Fim and Uilm document is now undergoing a complex process of approval within unions and among workers. It was first submitted to the confederal secretaries of the Cgil, Cisl and Uil union confederations, who, at a meeting held on 14 September, positively evaluated the platform's compatibility with incomes policy and the revision now in progress of the July 1993 national tripartite intersectoral agreement (IT9803223F). Then, on 22 September the general councils of Fiom, Fim and Uilm met in order to define the final points still remaining and to draw up the [definitive version of the platform](http://net.cisl.it/fim.contratto98/Piattaforma/CONSIGLI GENERALI 22/09). Workplace assemblies will now be held to extend the process of assessment of the platform to all workers in the industry. This phase will conclude with a referendum to be held on 19 and 20 October. In the final phase of bargaining, moreover, the secretaries will ask union members for a mandate to conclude negotiations. Finally, the agreement will be subjected to a referendum among all workers.

The main points of the platform

The most important goals set by the metalworkers' platform are those of "primarily addressing the problem of employment, protecting pay purchasing power, and strengthening workers rights in the workplace". The sectoral unions stress in particular the persistence of high unemployment (around 12%) and the marked disparity in its level between the North and South of Italy (around 6.5% in the North, 10% in the Centre, and more than 23% in the South, according to Istat figures).

The main demands advanced in the platform are set out below.

Rights

The globalisation of markets and the internationalisation of the economy have induced the sectoral trade unions to demand closer workforce involvement in corporate strategic choices, particularly as regards two specific areas:

1. in the case of the outsourcing of parts of the production process, the platform demands confirmation that the national metalworking agreement and company-level agreements apply to subcontracting production units as well. Also proposed is the setting up of a joint committee to supervise the economic, productive and employment performance of the subcontractors concerned; and

2. the platform urges the creation of joint committees on training and equal opportunities (in firms with more than 300 employees), as well as consultation committees in firms with more than 1,000 employees. These consultation committees would enable unions to express a prior and binding opinion on corporate strategic choices, on internationalisation decisions and on changes in ownership and organisation. Also proposed is the establishment of national committees charged with defining the contractual regulation of temporary work, telework and so-called "coordinated" freelance work (collaborazioni coordinate e continuative), as well as lower-level committees on vocational training.

Employment and working hours

The platform's demands concerning working time arrangements are closely tied to the issue of employment, which the unions regard as the top priority. Fiom, Fim and Uilm seek:

1. maximum annual working hours to be fixed at 1,760 (equal to a weekly average of 37 hours, 46 minutes), this being achieved by using all the 104 hours per year of reduced working time already provided for by the sectoral agreement;

2. the introduction of an "hours bank" system for managing overtime work which would enable workers to obtain either equivalent time off or overtime payments;

3. a further reduction in working hours for workers on night and weekend shifts, so that work schedules may be reorganised effectively to increase jobs by the creation of a fourth or fifth shift team. In particular, in the case of a 15-shift week (ie three shifts for five days), the platform asks for a further reduction in working time of 30 minutes for each night worked. When there are 18 or 21 shifts a week (ie three shifts for six or seven days), the unions demand the introduction of a fourth or fifth shift team respectively, in order to increase employment and thereby reduce actual individual working time to an average of about 33 hours per week;

4. confirmation of the annual 150/200-hour ceiling on overtime. Should the company require labour above that amount, the parties should reach company-level agreements on the hiring of new workers, on either indefinite or fixed-term agreements; and

5. regulations to facilitate part-time work and experiments in job-sharing.

Pay scales and supplementary pensions

The main economic contents of the platform are demands for:

1. an increase in minimum contractual wages in line with the expected inflation rate, as established by the July 1993 intersectoral agreement. Thus, pay increases should be 1.5% per year. The reference target pay rate was set by the unions' general councils at an intermediate figure between wage rates and actual earnings. The average monthly wage increase to be implemented over the two-year reference period would be about ITL 80,000;

2. transformation of biannual automatic seniority increases from a percentage of the basic wage (5%) to a fixed amount. The present percentage increases result in an indirect and automatic pay rise of around 15%, which is added to the collectively agreed increases, given that average seniority stands at around six years. In this manner, the unions intend to change this automatic revaluation into a demand for direct increases of the minimum contractual wages, thereby favouring younger or irregular workers unable to accumulate seniority increments; and

3. as regards financing of the sector's occupational supplementary pension fund, the unions ask for the percentage of the end-of-service allowance (trattamento di fine rapporto, Tfr) set aside for this pension fund to be increased from 18% to 40%, and for the share of the contribution paid by the employer to be increased from 1% to 1.2% of pay.

Other demands

Other union demands concern:

1. the creation of a permanent joint forum to examine opportunities for industrial development and the reduction of employment disparities;

2. a set of measures to promote initial and continuing vocational training

3. a commitment on the part of companies, particularly those with operations abroad, to implement the International Labour Organisation guidelines on union organisation rights, bargaining rights, and the prohibition of child and forced labour and of discrimination in the workplace.

The reactions of the employers' associations

Federmeccanica has not yet expressed a definitive opinion on the platform, as the document has still to be officially submitted to the employers' organisation and this will only be possible after the referendum among all workers to be held on 19-20 October. However, Federmeccanica's quarterly report on the performance of the metalworking industry warns that the sector is undergoing a period of recession. For this reason, the employers have asked the unions to moderate their demands. For Michele Figurati, a former Fiat manager and now director general of Federmeccanica, it is important to ensure the competitiveness of the industry, and this can be achieved only if labour costs are curbed and labour flexibility is increased.

After the final approval of the platforms by the sectoral unions' general councils on 22 September, Mr Figurati firmly criticised the trade unions' demands, namely the request for working time reductions and the creation of a further shift team, which he regards as too burdensome for companies. The director general of Federmeccanica also contested the demands for wage increases which he considers not to be in line with the incomes policy targets: in his opinion, the previous 1997 industry-wide agreement's wage provisions will have already granted rises higher than the actual inflation rate.

Commentary

The most interesting aspects of the Fiom, Fim and Uilm platform of demands are the use of working hours as the principal means to create employment, the commitment to the incomes policy goals set in the July 1993 agreement, and the intention to create joint committees for closer workforce involvement in company strategy.

The link between working hours and employment is currently an issue of great topicality in Italy and Europe - in Germany for example (DE9805262F) or France (FR9808129F) - and it is closely bound up with demands for reduction of the working week to 35 hours (IT9803159N). In the case of metalworking, proposed changes to working hours arrangements mainly concern reduced working time and the curbing of overtime. Not specified, however, are innovative measures to achieve greater working time flexibility, such as: "work-entry" hours, as agreed in the chemicals sector agreement (IT9806325F); the use of multi-period working time schedules, as included in the inter-union agreement on employment promotion in the South (IT9801219F); or the examination of new work schedules, as in the case of some recent company-level agreements in the food sector (IT9807232F). Indeed, in the case of metalworking, the creation of the "hours bank" seems to be more a means of keeping records of overtime work, rather than flexibilising work organisation.

Of particular importance is the sectoral unions' endorsement of wage restraint, even if in the process of the platform's final approval the unions requests turned out to be somehow higher than initially expected, triggering the abovementioned criticism by Federmeccanica. Despite this controversy over figures, which will be addressed during negotiations, the unions' position is relevant as it signals in principle their willingness to maintain and relaunch the provisions of the July 1993 tripartite agreement, the revision of which is now being discussed by the social partners. Moreover, the proposed change of automatic seniority increases from a percentage value to a fixed figure testifies to the unions' commitment to the progressive elimination of automatic increments, and it confirms the central importance of national-level bargaining on minimum contractual wages to protect real wages, as defined in the July 1993 tripartite agreement. Only the metalworking sectoral agreement still preserves the system of percentage seniority increments, and the intention to eliminate this "anomaly" is a further positive aspect of the platform.

The request to set up joint committees, finally, reflects a more general tendency towards the closer involvement of workers and their representatives in the definition of corporate strategies through the development of information and consultation procedures (IT9704204F).

In conclusion, the commitment of the metalworkers' unions to pay restraint provides an important endorsement of the incomes policy and bargaining structure defined in the July 1993 tripartite agreement. Further, the willingness to demand forms of institutionalisation of participatory practices is particularly relevant, given that this is an industry in which the unions have a strong "antagonistic" tradition. By contrast, as far as changes to working time arrangements are concerned, the demands of the metalworking unions appear more traditional and less innovative than in other industries (Roberto Pedersini, Fondazione Regionale Pietro Seveso).