Because the minimum wage set by law is not useful
The analysis of Walter Galbusera, former union leader in the UIL and now president of the Anna Kuliscioff Foundation, not only on the minimum wage
The debate on the "pact for Italy" between government, social forces and political forces has led to the emergence of new or closer alliances without addressing strategic aspects in support of growth and employment.
The positive understandings reached by the trade unions on safety in the workplace, however, must not be limited to introducing new and more effective sanctions and a more rational coordination of inspections. There is a need for a great training effort and to transform the non-negligible network of safety representatives into professionally experienced subjects dedicated exclusively to prevention activities in the workplace.
It is an absolutely priority turning point and which, through a “co-management” relationship, should feed a new culture of relations between the company and the trade union.
Meanwhile, the willingness of the CGIL to the introduction of the legal minimum wage has caused a lot of hype but the idea, originally loudly supported by the 5 Stars, did not go very far. In reality, the “legal minimum” is of fundamental importance where collective bargaining is not very extensive. In our country, four-fifths of employees are covered by collective agreements and it would not be difficult to attribute a similar contractual area of reference to each worker. Moreover, jurisprudence has sometimes resorted to non-contractual criteria to define the minimum wage. Everything would make it more reasonable to adopt, as the secretary of Uil Bombardieri recalled, one of the hypotheses of a European directive that makes the legal minimum wage coincide with the contractual one.
This solution would automatically give legal value to the contracted wages, getting out of the objective difficulty of defining a single minimum wage value valid for all of Italy and without getting into a grueling discussion on whether or not to include in the "minimum" of severance pay and thirteenth.
To give an example, if in Milan 9 or 10 euros (as proposed by the 5 Stars) would be realistic today, automatically extending this value in the most disadvantaged areas where wages are actually lower could produce effects opposite to those desired. Moreover, the risk highlighted by the secretary of the CISL Sbarra, of weakening the bargaining power by favoring an attempt to "realign" employers on legal salary values which, according to EU directives, are not higher than 60% of those contractual averages.
In summary, if you do not want to leave the judiciary with the task of deciding from time to time, only the application of Article 39 of the Constitution can solve the problem at its root. But this is where the greatest difficulties arise which, moreover, can be resolved with common sense, if there is the political will to open a new chapter in industrial relations.
Article 39 will realistically be implemented only if the first paragraph is kept alive ("The trade union organization is free") and the definition of the scope of application of the contracts, whether national collective agreements (such as current category contracts) or company contracts (such as the FCA one signed at the time by the late Marchionne with the union or as the one hypothesized for Ita, the air carrier that should be born on the ashes of Alitalia ).
It will then be up to the workers to elect the union representatives who – except for the frequent recourse to referendums – ratify it as "great voters".
At the same time, article 19 of Law 300 should be amended allowing, as provided for in the law for public employment, that all trade unions (not only those signing the contract) can freely compete for the election of delegates. The representation would thus be democratically elected and the general effectiveness of the contracts would be decided by a majority of the workers or their representatives.
CGIL, CISL and UIL should not fear anything from these rules. Above all the CISL and UIL which, as their identity tradition, have always defended pluralism as an absolute good. The legitimate rights of the majority must be distinguished from a monopoly logic contained in the obscure formula of "comparatively more representative trade unions". This would end the misunderstanding, generated by the combined provisions of Article 39, between national category contracts (produced by the pre-existing corporate rules) and the affirmation that the trade union organization is free: two antithetical concepts that mutually deny each other.
On the contrary, transparent verification of representativeness and trade union freedom are closely linked.
Something politically relevant, however, occurred because on the terrain of the alliances there was an understanding between Landini, Letta, Leu, Sinistra Italiana and Conte for now limited to the legal minimum wage and the law on representation to which the secretary of the CGIL has added a "new statute on the rights of all forms of work". The most delicate border is precisely that of legislation on contractual matters which, without prejudice to the legitimacy of parliamentary initiatives, risks weakening the concreteness of trade union action as has already happened for the unfortunate “Dignity Decree” of the first Conte government.
It will be interesting to see how the CISL and UIL respond to a choice by the CGIL that could weaken the unity of action. On the other hand, the "Pact for Italy" has not yet taken on a recognizable physiognomy, even if everyone is convinced that it should be as large as possible, while on contents such as citizenship income, quota 100, dismissals and social safety nets, relocations and, above all, active labor policies and productivity bargaining are not yet glimpsed between the trade union forces and those political orientations that converge.
The tax reform itself is not able today to satisfy all legitimate needs, also because Draghi is grappling with a series of important deadlines linked to the realization of the objectives of the NRP in compliance with the agreements signed in the EU.
The sooner the trade unions will seek a common and coherent line on contractual policies, employment and welfare, the better because they will be able to guarantee themselves a positive role in the implementation of the NRP for the rehabilitation and development of the country.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-non-e-utile-il-salario-minimo-fissato-per-legge/ on Wed, 29 Sep 2021 07:35:18 +0000.