Redundancy agreement signed at Marconi

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Following the announcement of job losses by the Italian subsidiaries of the Marconi telecommunications group, in March 2003 an agreement was concluded by management and trade unions which cuts the number of planned redundancies from 1,100 to 430. A number of measures will be used to cushion the job losses, and the remaining workers will share the burden through working time reductions and rotating use of the wages guarantee fund.

Marconi, the UK-based telecommunications multinational, has research laboratories (Marconi Communications SpA) in Italy at Genoa, Rome, Latina, Milan, Pisa, Ivrea and production facilities (Marconi Sud SpA) at Marcianise (Caserta). Marconi employs, managers excluded, about 2,310 workers in Italy.

In March 2002, Marconi managers presented to trade unions a restructuring plan which provided for 800 redundancies. In December 2002, half of these redundant workers left the company. Despite this workforce reduction, the company proposed new redundancies affecting a total of 1,100 workers.

On 7 March 2003, after a three-month dispute, management and trade unions reached an agreement which cuts the number of redundancies from 1,100 to 430. The trade union signatories were: the Italian Metal-Mechanical Federation (Federazione italiana metalmeccanici, Fim), affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Union (Confederazione italiana sindacali lavoratori, Cisl); the Italian Federation of Metalworkers (Federazione impiegati operai metallurgici, Fiom), affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione generale italiana del lavoro, Cgil); and the Union of Italian Metal-Mechanical Workers (Unione italiana lavoratori metalmeccanici, Uilm), affiliated to the Union of Italian Workers (Unione italiana del lavoro, Uil).

Under the terms of the agreement, the redundancies will be managed in a 'sympathetic' way. The company will make recourse on a rotating basis to the extraordinary wages guarantee fund (cassa integrazione guadagni, Cig), a scheme which pays a state benefit to workers whose employment is suspended by firms undertaking restructuring as a result of severe structural difficulties (IT9802319F). Furthermore, working hours will be reduced, a 'mobility' scheme - whereby redundant workers receive a state allowance and benefit from various measures to help them find work - will be introduced for 110 workers and voluntary redundancies will be encouraged.

Use of the special Cig at Marconi Communications will involve a large number of workers, corresponding to 230 'working units', taking it in turns to be suspended from work and receive Cig benefits, for 12 months. Use of special Cig at Marconi Sud, will also be on a rotational basis and will involve 600 workers.

Mobility will affect 80 workers at Marconi Communications in Genoa and 30 at Marconi Sud in Marcianise The personnel to be placed on the mobility scheme will be identified from among workers who have met the necessary contribution requirements for entitlement to a seniority or old-age pension. Furthermore, workers who will accrue these requirements during the period of mobility will receive monthly payments until retirement of EUR 190-EUR 550 to EUR1,420-EUR 1,680, depending on their age and contribution records. Workers who have not accrued the necessary pension contributions, but are willing to be placed on mobility, will receive in addition to the abovementioned payments an incentive equal to six months' pay.

Workers who opt for voluntary redundancy will receive an incentive payment corresponding to 15 months' pay for workers aged at least 40, 18 months' pay for workers aged 41-55 years, and 12 months' pay for workers aged 56 or over.

An outplacement service is also provided for redundant workers. If workers take up this option, their incentive payments for leaving the company will be reduced. Vocational training courses will be organised for the workers placed on the Cig in order to facilitate their reintegration into employment.

The signatories of the agreement will meet every three months to assess market performance, the progress of the Marconi industrial plan, employment and production developments, workloads and the use of the Cig.

All the parties involved took a positive view of the agreement. Antonio Iacovino, the national coordinator of Fim-Cisl, said that this is 'an agreement which protects salaries and wages'. For Elio Troili, the Fiom-Cgil national coordinator for the Marconi group, the agreement demonstrates that 'it is possible to manage an industrial crisis in a way which is different from the one adopted by Fiat ' (IT0212211F) and 'to apply sympathetic models also in an industrial crisis, thus reducing negative consequences for workers'.