Renewal of collective agreement for employees of professionals

In May 2006, the national collective agreement for employees of Italian professionals was revised and renewed. The new agreement combines three previous agreements in relation to pay increases, decentralised collective bargaining and flexible forms of employment.

The national collective agreement for the employees of professionals has been revised and renewed, following its expiration on 30 September 2005. On 3 May 2006, the financial part of the agreement was renewed for the two-year period 2006–2007. The regulatory part of the agreement has also been revised.

Signatories to agreement

The agreement was signed, on the employer side, by the representatives of professional businesses: Confprofessioni, the Italian Confederation of Free Professions (Confederazione Sindacale Italiana Libere Professioni, Consilp); the Italian Confederation of Technical Professions (Confederazione Sindacale Italiana delle Professioni Tecniche, Confedertecnica); and the Italian Confederation of Professionals and Artists (Confederazione Italiana dei Professionisti ed Artisti, Cipa).

On the employee side, the following workers’ representatives signed the agreement: the Italian Federation of Commerce, Hotels and Service Workers (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Commercio Turismo e Servizi, Filcams), affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil); the Italian Federation of Commerce, Services and Tourism Workers (Federazione Italiana Sindacati addetti Servizi Commerciali Affini e del Turismo, Fisascat), affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl); and the Italian Union of tourism, tertiary and service sector workers (Unione Italiana Lavoratori Turismo Terziario e Servizi, Uiltucs), affiliated to the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil).

Profile of sector

In Italy, professional businesses are responsible for employing over one million workers. These workers represent one of the weakest segments of the labour market, consisting mainly of women employed as ‘independent collaborators’ by professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants. This means that although the workers are officially self-employed, they are in fact working in a capacity more similar to that of a dependent employee (IT0501NU01). Usually, these very small professional businesses employ only one worker and the employment relationship is generally based on mutual trust; thus, it is common to find situations of irregular and undeclared labour.

Consolidating three agreements

The [new agreement (in Italian, 490Kb PDF)](http://www.fisascat.it/pub/testo ccnl studii professionali 3 maggio 2006 DEFINITIVO.pdf) is particularly important because it combines three sectoral agreements in one text. The three previous agreements – covering pay increases, decentralised collective bargaining and flexible forms of employment – were signed separately by Confprofessioni, Confedertecnica and Cipa. The decision to have just one agreement for the whole sector of professions will consolidate the stability of its employees and encourage the development of the sector.

The national collective agreement for employees of professional businesses applies to all professional activities and their employees in the following areas:

• economic-administrative – employees of labour consultants, accountants, auditors, etc.;

• legal – employees of lawyers, other legal professionals and commissioners of oaths, etc.;

• technical – employees of engineers, architects, building, land and forest surveyors, etc.;

• medical – employees of specialist consultants, doctors, dentists, dental surgeons, psychologists, veterinary surgeons, etc.

New aspects of agreement

The main improvements in the new agreement are as follows:

• initiation of decentralised bargaining at regional level. The agreement also regulates bilateral activities, such as continuing training, which will have to be organised by the social partners at regional level;

• transposition and regulation of certain forms of flexible employment – as provided for by Law 30/2003 on the reform of the labour market (IT0307204F) – such as professional apprenticeships, and revising the regulation of part-time and fixed-term employment in order to deal with seasonal workloads. The agreement also provides for the possibility of telework;

• defining funding procedures for the establishment of a sectoral joint body: for every €2 paid by the employer, the employee will contribute a further €1;

• implementing the regulation of the sector’s supplementary healthcare fund (Cassa di Assistenza Supplementare, CaDiProf), which has about 73,000 members;

• a 4.62% wage increase, which corresponds to, on average, €56 per month per employee. The pay increase will be backdated to January 2006 and will be paid each year in April and September.

The social partners have agreed to set up a supplementary pension fund before the end of 2006 and to define the rules for general trade union representation, which will be included in the next contract.

Trade union reaction

Mario Piovesan, National Secretary of Filcams, expressed his satisfaction with the new agreement, commenting that ‘attention to training activities is a clear indication that the social partners are beginning to pay greater attention towards human resources. Professional businesses need to gain employees’ trust and offer them incentives’.

Marta Santi, Cesos