Metalworking supplementary pension fund is launched

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Cometa, the national supplementary pensions fund for workers in the metalworking industry, was launched on 21 October 1997.

On 21 October 1997, following seven months of negotiations between the national metalworkers' trade unions - Fim-Cisl, Fiom-Cgil and Uilm-Uil- and Federmechanica the metalworking affiliate of the Confindustria employers' confederation, the national supplementary occupational pensions fund for metalworkers, known as Cometa, was put into effect. It had been decided to set up the fund in the sectoral collective agreement signed in February 1997 (IT9702202F).

The new agreement sets out the rules on how the fund will operate:

• the supreme body of the fund is the assembly, 50% of whose members are representatives elected by workers and 50% representatives elected by the employers;

• the assembly elects the management board, which is made up of six workers' representatives and six company representatives, plus a president, vice-president and board of auditors. The positions of president and vice-president will be held in rotation by representatives of workers and companies;

• the management board, which takes decisions by a two-thirds majority, is responsible for the coordination of the fund. It selects the managers of the fund and the bank in which to deposit the financial resources, and decides on investment policies;

• for workers, fund membership requires only a signed agreement to contribute, authorising their employer to deduct contributions directly from their pay. Workers are not obliged to participate in the fund;

• workers will contribute 1% of their annual pay to the fund (estimated at around ITL 330,000 on average), and companies will make a contribution equal to that paid by each worker. Furthermore, 18% of the annual payment made into the Tfr (trattamento di fine rapporto) end-of-service allowance fund on behalf of each current worker will be invested in the pensions fund - an average of ITL 450,000. Tfr is a form of deferred pay withheld by the employer until termination of the employment relationship, which amounts to around 0.7% of the annual wage. In total, for each worker the fund will receive a sum of around ITL 1,100,000 a year; and

• for newly employed workers, employers will pay the entire sum that each worker accumulates as Tfr into the pensions fund.

Occupational pension schemes, based on collective agreements, are a relatively new phenomenon in Italy, but are becoming more and more important (IT9705205F).