During the signing of the Fiat Group’s supplementary agreement, the Italian metalworking trade unions asked the Group to start discussions on a possible future international framework agreement (IFA), which would help to relaunch this type of bargaining in Italy. To date, three groups – Indesit/Merloni, Eni Spa and Impregilo Spa – have signed IFAs in Italy. Such agreements are becoming increasingly relevant in a global labour market.
Background
International framework agreements (IFAs) came into being 20 years ago. These agreements are the result of bargaining between a multinational enterprise and an international sectoral trade union federation, sometimes supported by the national trade union federations as local experts. Despite the fact that IFAs follow the principle that quality work should receive a commensurate salary, they do not address the pay part of negotiations directly. Instead, they deal with workers’ rights and trade union representativeness, including the freedom to choose a preferred trade union organisation and the right to collective bargaining; the agreements also seek to eliminate child and hard labour and every form of discrimination between workers. Furthermore, IFAs promote the organisation of a form of production which protects the environment and the health and safety of workers.
So far, 55 IFAs have been signed worldwide. They are most common in the metalworking sector.
IFAs in Italy
Up to now, three Italian companies have undersigned IFAs – that is, the Indesit Company (formerly Merloni Elettrodomestici), Eni Spa and Impregilo Spa.
Indesit/Merloni agreement
The first IFA in Italy was concluded in 2002 between Merloni Elettrodomestici (now the Indesit Company, which is the second largest producer of household electrical appliances in Europe and the fifth worldwide) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), represented by the three national metalworking trade union organisations. The latter are the Federation of White-collar and Blue-collar Metalworkers (Federazione Impiegati Operai Metallurgici, Fiom), affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Metalworkers’ Federation (Federazione Italiana Metalmeccanici, Fim), affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl) and the Italian Metalworkers’ Union (Unione Italiana Lavoratori Metalmeccanici, Uilm), affiliated to the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil).
The agreement states that the company must ‘respect fundamental human rights and eliminate the exploitation of child labour’ and enforce the conventions established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in all its plants and at all its contractors and suppliers. The IFA stipulates that the company will inform the trade unions of the agreement’s implementation during their annual meetings with the European Works Councils (EWCs). For those countries that are not represented by EWCs, the information will be given to worker representatives in each individual plant by the local Merloni/Indesit management.
Eni agreement
The second Italian IFA was reached on 29 November 2002 between Eni, a state shareholding group operating in the oil and gas industry, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the three national sectoral trade unions in the chemicals sector: the Italian Chemicals, Energy and Manufacturing Federation (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Chimici Energia Manifatture, Filcem-Cgil), the Energy, Fashion, Chemicals and Allied Industries Federation (Federazione Energia Moda, Chimica e Affini, Femca-Cisl) and the Italian Chemicals, Energy and Manufacturing Workers’ Union (Unione Italiana Lavoratori Chimica Energia Manifatturiero, Uilcem-Uil).
The agreement contains a detailed list of ethical principles, including association rights for workers, the banning of child and hard labour and any form of discrimination, and total respect for human rights and diversity. It proposes to enforce these principles through monitoring and intervention where necessary, and through specific positive interventions in order to ‘guarantee fundamental social and human rights and good working practices’. The agreement envisages an annual meeting between the signatories, during which the company will inform the trade unions of matters regarding company progress, developments in industrial relations, actions and programmes in the area of corporate social responsibility, and health and safety in the workplace.
Impregilo agreement
The third IFA in Italy was signed in 2004 between Impregilo, an international company operating in construction and civil engineering, and the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW), together with the three Italian sectoral federations: the Italian Federation of Wood, Building and Allied Industry Workers (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Legno Edili e Affini, Fillea-Cgil), the Italian Federation for Construction and Allied Workers (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Costruzioni e Affini, Filca-Cisl) and the National Federation for Building, Allied Industry and Woodworkers (Federazione Nazionale Lavoratori Edili Affini e del Legno, Feneal-Uil).
This agreement also states that the group must respect the ILO conventions regarding child labour, discrimination and working conditions, as well as the payment of salaries which are ‘enough to live on’. It envisages working hours that comply with the national laws and collective agreements, freedom to choose whether to do overtime, compliance with international conventions concerning the environment and the use of continuous vocational training. The agreement set outs the constitution of a team comprising a representative of each signatory organisation and representatives of the company. An annual meeting takes place, where the participants ‘evaluate and discuss to what degree the agreement has been respected’.
Proposal of Fiat trade unions
The Fiat Group provides for a company-level agreement on pay and other matters, which is supplementary to the main collective agreement in the metalworking sector (IT0711019I). During the start of negotiations regarding the supplementary agreement at Fiat – which was due for renewal in 2008 (IT0607049I) – the metalworking trade unions, Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil, asked the Group to sign an IFA with IMF. The trade unions hope that, in this way, the Fiat Group will relaunch IFAs in Italy.
The number of Fiat employees in the world totals 210,000 persons, 133,000 of whom work in Europe – with 89,000 employees working in Italy. The proposal to sign an IFA was made during the meeting of trade union delegates of the Fiat Group worldwide on 5 September 2008. The Fiat IFA, according to its promoters, should establish ‘the global rules for a dignified form of work within each plant’, particularly in a market which forecasts a substantial reduction in vehicle sales.
During the September meeting, considerable differences were evident between the various plants in the Fiat Group. In the Turkish plants, for example, the only legal trade union is Türk Metal. According to the Secretary of the Union of United Metalworkers (Birleşik Metal İşçileri Sendikası, Birleşik Metal-İş), Ozkan Atar, ‘the other organisations are not admitted in the plant and can only contact workers in secret’.
Reactions to proposal
According to the Manager in the international section of Fim-Cisl, Gianni Alioti, the relaunch of IFAs has become necessary due to the increase in internationalisation processes and the decline in local production. Moreover, in the opinion of the Manager in the car production sector of Fiom-Cgil, Enzo Masini, ‘the first question to deal with concerns child labour’ followed by ‘the recognition of the right of workers to become members of trade union organisations’.
The Fiat Group has stated that the initiative is ‘noble but difficult to transform into practical and homogeneous measures in countries where legislation involving the labour market is so diversified’.
Commentary
The demand of the Fiat trade union organisations is a further indication of the increasing attention that workers are paying to the implications of market globalisation. Workers are becoming more aware of the need to create practical instruments to protect working conditions and workers’ rights. In fact, these rights are being threatened by social dumping. The trade unions’ aim, therefore, is to guarantee that the costs of global competition imply no deterioration in working conditions.
Vilma Rinolfi and Domenico Paparella, Cesos