National agreement signed for agricultural workers

Download article in original language : IT9808178NIT.DOC

July 1998 saw an important breakthrough in Italy's agricultural sector, with the conclusion of a national collective agreement.

On 10 July 1998, the national collective agreement for 700,000 workers employed in agriculture and floriculture was signed by the Confagricoltura and Coldiretti employers' organisations and the sectoral trade unions affiliated to Cgil,Cisl and Uil. This was an important event for Italian industrial relations, as the relationship between the social partners in this sector has gone through a long period of crises and difficulties which have prevented the signature of national agreements for years.

Previous bargaining in the sector required strict interventions from the political authorities which, through the Ministry of Labour, led the social partners to accept complex and painful governmental mediation solutions. On this occasion, however, the negotiations lasted only 10 months - not very long compared with previous agreements, and without mediation interventions besides those of social partners.

Furthermore, the contents of the agreement are very innovative for this sector and meet the principles established by the central tripartite agreement on incomes policy of July 1993 (IT9803223F). The new agreement's provisions include:

• a pay increase at provincial level of 2.7% from 1 July 1998;

• the modification of the system of job classification. Two main groups are established - agricultural workers and floricultural workers. Within these two groups there are three different "professional areas" regulated according to specific job descriptions;

• the postponement of working time issues. The partners commit themselves to dealing, through negotiations, with possible working time issues linked to any changes required in the sector after the possible approval of the law on the reduction of working time that is now being discussed by the Parliament (IT9803159N);

• the establishment of two bargaining levels - national and provincial. The latter has an important role in defining contractual wages and productivity/quality pay supplements as well as job classification

• the establishment, in companies with more than 15 employees, of unitary trade union representative bodies (Rappresentanza Sindacale Unitaria, Rsu) elected by the workers on the basis of lists presented by the union organisations (as already exist in most other sectors). The activities of the Rsu are regulated by a protocol negotiated among the partners;

• the strengthening of the "participatory" industrial relations system with the establishment of bipartite bodies which will regulate important aspects of the employment relationship - vocational training, equal opportunities and safety at work;

• the consolidation of the industrial relations system among the partners with the establishment of permanent bipartite "observatories" at national, regional and provincial level, aimed at fostering employment and the development of the sector and at monitoring the labour market;

• the regulation of part-time work, apprenticeship and temporary work (a special protocol has been agreed for the last-named issue);

• the establishment of a complementary occupational pension fund that will become operational from 1 January 1999; and

• the establishment of an end-of-service allowance (trattamento di fine rapporto, Tfr) which will be managed by a specially created fund. Companies will have to deposit every year in this fund an agreed amount of money per worker.

This agreement is seen as a very important achievement for the trade unions.Albino Gorini, secretary general of the agricultural workers' union, Fisba Cisl, stated on 18 July 1998 that "the agreement confirms the irreplaceable role of the autonomy of social partners in the regulation of their interests through the bargaining process. The new system of industrial relations leave a lot of room for social concertation and for bilaterality, and gives to the partners a new power of intervention on strategic issues such as: the labour market, vocational training and health and safety for the development of the sector" (quoted in Conquiste del Lavoro, 18-19 July 1998).