Chemical and energy unions agree basis for collective negotiations

Three trade unions in Italy’s chemical and energy sectors signed a joint document on 22 May 2012 with the objective of protecting the spending power of members, ensuring greater job security and improving industrial relations. The document will serve as a point of reference for the renewal of national collective agreements that cover 450,000 workers in the pharmaceutical, chemical, rubber, plastics, energy and oil and gas-water sectors, all hit hard by the global recession.

Basis for negotiations

On 22 May 2012, the basis for the renewal of national collective agreements (NCAs) in the chemical and energy sectors was set out in a document on contract renewal (in Italian, 136Kb PDF) and agreed by the sectoral trade unions:

• the Italian Federation of Chemical, Textiles, Energy and Manufacturing Workers affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Filctem-Cgil);
• the Federation of Employees in Energy, Fashion, Chemicals and Allied Products Workers affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions (Femca-Cisl);
• the Italian Union of Workers in Energy and Chemical Manufacturing Workers affiliated to the Union of Italian Workers (Uilcem-Uil).

Specifically, the agreement will cover the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, rubber, plastic, energy and oil, and gas-water sectors. All the NCAs for these sectors, covering approximately 450,000 workers, will expire on 31 December 2012.

Key points of the document

The document sets out three primary objectives.

• The first is to protect the spending power of workers’ salaries by pursuing a pay rise of between 7% and 9% over the three years from 2013 to 2015. The exact percentage will be decided by the end of October. The unions will also request compensation for the difference between actual inflation and the predicted figure used to set pay increases when previous NCAs were agreed.
• The second is to improve job security, because the unions consider ‘the fight to combat precariousness’ to be of the utmost importance. The unions believe that the stabilisation of workers’ job contracts will be guaranteed through continuous vocational training and professional apprenticeships (apprendistato professionalizzante) set up in accordance with Legislative Decree no. 276/03, Article 49, and that such apprenticeships must become the principal instrument for entry into work.
• The third is to improve industrial relations through the increased participation of workers in such issues as energy efficiency, the environment and social responsibility within enterprises. The unions also propose that the concept of social responsibility should be included in the code of conduct of enterprises.

The document also sets out the unions’ hope that the future bargaining platform will pay particular attention to ‘agreement welfare’, encouraging companies to subscribe all their workers to supplementary social security funds on a no-objection basis (the so-called silenzio-assenso). This will guarantee employees’ access to benefits from the first day of work, irrespective of the type of working agreement that has been signed. Moreover, unions want to see the rights to supplementary health funds extended to all types of contract.

Along with this document, the trade unions have also approved new procedures for setting up the bargaining platform and the approval of proposed agreements. Workers will be actively involved in all the transition phases as well as the final approval of the new NCAs.

Reaction

The three sectoral trade unions, Filctem-Cgil, Femca-Cisl and Uilcem-Uil, are convinced that the objectives laid out in the document – in particular, increasing the participation of workers in the strategic choices of enterprises – will help ‘re-launch industrial activities to defend professional and employment levels, in such a way as to concentrate on stimulating growth and development’.

The General Secretary of Femca-Cisl, Sergio Gigli, underlined the importance of a joint solution, adding that ‘a conscious effort had been made to satisfy workers’ needs’.

There have been no comments made on the document by the employer associations.

Commentary

With the exception of pharmaceutical industries, the Italian chemical industry was seriously weakened by the economic and financial crisis. Between 2008 and 2009, sectoral employment fell from year 2000 levels by 10%, to around 115,000. The current recession is, therefore, hitting sectoral enterprises that are already weak and whose production levels are lower than they were before the 2008–2009 crisis.

By 2011, sectoral employment levels had decreased to about 113,000 workers. Despite the fact that companies in the sector export to countries outside Europe which have yet to be hit by the recession, they are nevertheless affected by the crisis in the manufacturing sector and in construction, as well as by the banks’ squeeze on credit, according to the National Federation of the Chemical Industry (Federchimica).

However, in contrast to other industrial sectors, such as metalworking which has frequently been characterised by sharp divisions between its three most important trade unions, the chemical sector has a long tradition of constructive collaboration.

The trade unions of the chemical sector have also worked better with the various sectoral employer associations, the largest of which is Federchimica. Giorgio Squinzi, its President until end of May 2012 and currently President of the General Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria), managed to protect the sector from conflict and made some innovative choices regarding bargaining in the sector.

The chemical division, for example was the first to extend the validity of its national collective agreement to three years at the end of 2009. In June 2011, together with the pharmaceutical division, the chemical industry signed a joint agreement to sustain the relaunch of sectoral competitiveness and employment.

The chemical sector was also the first to activate two sectoral funds, one for supplementary pensions and the other for healthcare.

Vilma Rinolfi, Cesos