Collective Bargaining Agreement in Italian

Work performed more than 40 hours per week is done in overtime. Different overtime limits may be set by collective agreements. In principle, overtime should be occasional or for exceptional reasons which cannot be compensated by the recruitment of new workers. Legislative Decree 66/2003 replaced the provisions on normal working hours and overtime and transposed EU Directives 93/104/EC and 2000/34/EC respectively. According to Legislative Decree 66/2003, collective agreements should regulate the most important aspects of this issue. However, it also provides that there is a different system of employee representation for civil servants (Act No. 29 of 3 February 1993), but the rights are the same. Collective agreements govern the choice and duration of the office of workers` representatives. A change of representatives follows the signing of a new collective agreement. There is no procedure for collective disputes, with the exception of the possibility introduced by Act 80 of 1998 to apply to the Supreme Court for the immediate interpretation of a collective agreement signed by the civil servants` union. After nearly a year and a half of negotiations, the National Collective Agreement (CCBA) for the metallurgical industry (CCNL Metalmeccanici) with more than 1.5 million employees has been extended until June 30, 2024.

Often seen as a pioneer for other sectors, the agreement includes significant changes in benefits, employee classification, compensation structures and terms and conditions of employment. During compulsory maternity leave, the mother is entitled to 80% of her normal social security salary and the period is counted as actual working time. Collective agreements generally require the employer to compensate for the difference from the regular salary. This agreement was followed in February 2014 by a parallel agreement with the Confederation of Conservative Employers in the Service Sector, and identical but separate texts were also signed by the small trade union federations UGL, CISAL and CONFSAL. Many advantages to promote the training of workers have been introduced since 1973 by national collective agreements. Employees are entitled to a certain number of paid hours of unworked (150 usually up to 250 for workers who are required to acquire a basic level of compulsory education) to attend courses in public or certified schools that may or may not be related to their professional activity. The bargaining framework created in 1993 came under pressure in the mid-early years when employers demanded that collective bargaining be more decentralised and that greater emphasis be placed on collective bargaining at company level. This was followed by a series of agreements to revise the rules. However, as the three main federations initially took different positions, two important agreements were only signed in 2009 by the ICFTU and the UIL on the trade union side. According to case law, a number of measures taken by employers have been classified as anti-union behaviour and are therefore prohibited. These include the dismissal of strikers; the hiring of third parties to replace strikers; retaliation against workers who strike legally; failure to inform unions on matters governed by collective agreements; direct negotiations with workers, bypassing trade unions; on the violation of legally established trade union rights, e.B.

not to reserve space for trade union meetings within the factory; not allowing the union to have a board of directors that publishes union information, interferes in union protectionism, etc. Most categories of workers (about 95%) in Italy are subject to a collective agreement. However, this does not mean that collective agreements actually cover 95% of all employment contracts, as they only bind the parties who signed the contract, as well as employers and employees legally represented by these parties under the provisions of the Civil Code (i.e. they only apply to members of the organizations that signed the contract). It would therefore be necessary to verify whether the employer is at least a member of the employers` association signatory to the agreement, in which case the agreement would cover its employees, whether or not they are members of the trade union concerned. If the employer is not a member of such an association, the agreement would not bind him. Nevertheless, judges may take into account the minimum wage set out in the agreement as a parameter for setting a fair wage in accordance with article 36 of the Constitution (see article 11 above). The judge may therefore decide that an employee who is not covered by an agreement will be remunerated at a rate at least equal to the rate fixed in the agreement that applies to his class and industry. Employees who voluntarily resign must give notice, the duration of which is set out in the applicable national collective agreement. The Civil Code stipulates that any contracting party (employer and employee) of a contract of indefinite duration may terminate it, provided that the notice period is respected (§ 2118), or if there is a justified reason (§ 2119).

However, Law 604 of 1966 (which implemented a collective agreement in this area) introduced restrictions on the absence of dismissal of the employer for companies with more than 35 employees. This was then extended to all organizations, regardless of their size, by Law 108 of 1990; dismissal by the employer is only possible for “legitimate reasons” and subject to compliance with the notice period; or without notice for a valid reason (§ 2119, CC). Collective agreements often list the reasons for dismissal. As with collective bargaining at sectoral level, representativeness agreements, in particular those signed in January 2014, established new rules for the signing of agreements and for the composition of the RSU (see section on representation in the workplace). In general, national collective agreements provide for an annual ceiling for overtime and set wage increases to which overtime workers are entitled. Collective agreements do not recognise the right of co-determination for workers` representatives, but only the right to be informed and heard on the most important decisions of the undertaking. In addition, employers with more than 15 employees have the right to dismiss workers in a collective redundancy procedure. This applies whenever the employer intends – due to the reduction, conversion or closure of activities – to dismiss within 120 days at least five workers employed in the same production unit or in different production units within the same municipality (i.e. collective redundancies). In addition to the development of relations between trade unions and employers described above, governments have intervened much more in recent years to set the rules for negotiation, always in favour of greater local flexibility. Several (important) employment-related issues are governed by national collective agreements and collective agreements with works councils at company level. Some agreements at company level provide for a more significant reduction in weekly working time in conjunction with a new shiftwork system which allows for more intensive use of machines and thus increased productivity.

If no national collective agreement is applicable or if the parties agree to derogate from its provisions, this document must also include the employee`s salary, the right to annual leave and working hours, as well as the dismissal due by each party. In 2015, matteo Renzi`s government increased the influence of local collective bargaining in the Employment Act by granting agreements at company level or in local areas the same rights as industry-level agreements in order to make changes to legal regulations in a number of areas. [14] There are no official statistics on collective bargaining coverage, but an ETUI study on collective bargaining in Italy, published in 2019, found that coverage estimates were “stable at around 80% of all employees”. [1] However, this figure refers to overall coverage at industry level. . . .