Company agreement signed at Marazzi Ceramiche

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In December 2004 , trade unions and management at the Italian tile group Marazzi Ceramiche, which has around 1,000 employees, signed a new company agreement. The main innovations include measures to improve training and skills, increased allowances, measures to help working mothers and changes to working hours.

In December 2004, Marazzi Gruppo Ceramiche SpA conclude a new 'integrative agreement' (ie a company-level agreement within the framework of the national sectoral agreement) to replace the one that expired about a year previously. The deal, which covers about 1,000 workers at company plants in Sassuolo and Fiorano, was signed on the trade union side by the Italian Federation of Chemical Workers (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Chimici e Affini, Filcea), affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione generale italiana del lavoro, Cgil), and the Energy, Fashion, Chemicals and Allied Industries Federation (Federazione Energia, Moda, Chimica e Affini, Femca), affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (Confederazione italiana sindacati lavoratori, Cisl).

Marazzi, established in 1935 in Sassuolo (Modena), is one of the largest tile manufacturers in the world and the leading producer in Europe. The renewal of the company's collective agreement comes after several years of a slowdown of production in the tile sector, at a time when the industry's global market is going through a phase of structural change. Prospects for the coming years are difficult to assess, obliging many manufacturing companies - as mentioned in the new Marazzi agreement - to take new organisational and industrial decisions in order to face competition from Asian countries.

The key non-pay parts of the company agreement include the following.

• Given the abovementioned market scenario, the agreement confirms the importance of the information and consultation mechanisms provided for in the previous agreement. This defined additional rights for the unitary workplace union structure (rappresentanze sindacali unitarie, Rsu), such as preventive and timely information and communication procedures, especially as regards new acquisitions and changes in corporate and productive structures.

• According to the agreement, training is a strategic tool for the valorisation of human resources. Continuing training should be developed for all occupational groups, including white- and blue-collar workers. In particular, activity will focus on basic training, specific vocational training and training in team-work. At the beginning of each year, the company will evaluate: workers’ real training needs; possible corresponding actions; priorities; procedures for the realisation of these actions; and the possibilities of having access to the intersectoral vocational training fund (IT0202103F) as well as the available public and private resources.

• The agreement provides for the use of atypical forms of labour, such as fixed-term employment contracts and temporary agency work, while setting limits for their use, which may not exceed 10% and 8% respectively of the annual average number of workers on open-ended contracts in the company. Moreover, the company will inform the workers concerned 30 days in advance if their contracts will not be converted into open-ended contracts or renewed. The company will transform 15 fixed-term contracts into open-ended contracts before 31 March 2005. Possible recourse to other forms of atypical contract will be analysed together with the Rsu.

• A reduction of the lunch break, which does not imply an increase in overall working time, will be possible, on an experimental basis, for administrative and commercial personnel.

• Working mothers will be able to benefit, until the child reaches the age of three, from more convenient shifts and working time. Moreover the agreement provides for a financial contribution of EUR 50 to help working mothers to pay for day-care facilities for a maximum period of 18 months.

• The company will give workers who are on sick leave two months' notice of the expiry date of the 'protected period', during which they receive sick pay. Moreover, in case of severe illnesses, such as oncological, cardiovascular or neurological problems, the agreement guarantees workers full pay until recovery or until the end of the protected period.

• Measures relating to the environment and safety at subcontractors are strengthened. The partners have also agreed a system of rules for the mobility of employees within the group. Furthermore, during the first months of 2005 a joint committee will be established to asses the current job classification system, draw up a new one, and identify and define the occupational profiles existing within the company that are not covered in the collective agreement.

The main points of the pay part of the agreement are that:

• a one-off payment of EUR 550 will be made to each worker to cover the period between the expiry of the old agreement and the conclusion of the new one;

• from 1 December 2004, the allowance for night work, holiday work and overtime work will increase from EUR 7.75 to EUR 8.50;

• the 'stand-by' (reperibilità) allowance increases to EUR 185 per week, the on-call allowance to EUR 25 per call, and the on-call stand-by allowance to EUR 100 per call; and

• the 'participation bonus' will increase by up to EUR 70 per month in 2005, EUR 80 in 2006 and EUR 90 in 2007.

According to the signatory trade unions, both the pay and other contents of the agreement are significant in the ceramic sector’s industrial relations context.