How is the renewal of the employment contract in the tertiary sector going?
Facts, comments and scenarios on the renewal of the employment contract in the tertiary sector. The in-depth study by Mario Sassi
It is true, as claimed by the president of the Confcommercio work commission, that her organization signs the largest, most applied and (I add) the most copied national contract on the market. In Italy there are over 800 contracts. In the commercial sector alone they reach more than 200 and the vast majority fall under the so-called "pirate contracts".
These are contracts signed by minor trade unions and business associations of various types which, in addition to providing lower protections, rights and / or wages for the worker compared to the major national collective bargaining agreements, generate unfair competition within the same sector. Only in the business services sector, the average salary of contracts signed by minor organizations can be 20% lower than those stipulated by the most representative social partners.
In trade alone, the gap reaches 8 percentage points, but it is precisely in this sector that there is the greatest presence of pirate contracts which now reach almost 10% of the total.
Therefore, the presence of a leading confederal contract such as the one managed by Confcommercio with Filcams Cgil, uiltucs UIL and Fisascat Cisl, recognized and applied by the relative majority of tertiary companies, represents an important element of balance of the system. For this reason I have no doubts that this model must be defended and confirmed.
Its contents, costs and application flexibility make it different and, for these reasons, the most adopted compared to all the other main contracts managed by other confederations or employers' associations and by the respective trade unions. Due to its contents, which are interesting for businesses, it has gone beyond the original starting point: the trade sector.
However, tourism, catering and small businesses are not included. They have their own national contracts and aim to stay outside that perimeter. As well as the large-scale retail trade which, failing to manage its real borders with determination with a unitary vision, the only option to guarantee itself a concrete authority, resigns itself to staying a little inside and a little outside among cooperatives, discount stores, organized distribution , franchising, restructuring needs of large surfaces and new competitors in the network that operate with other contractual and fiscal rules of the game.
The expansion of the tertiary market, its undervaluation by the industry, the technological and organizational innovation have allowed, over the years, to attract sectors and activities previously dispersed elsewhere within this contract. So if we remove tourism, catering and everything that finds answers in other CCNLs, the application area now goes far beyond the borders of the respective traditional representatives.
For this reason, Confcommercio, precisely because of the position it has acquired over the years, finds itself facing a decisive crossroads: to confirm or not this leadership by indicating a way forward for the entire service sector. First of all in the phase of the post lockdown economic recovery but also for a necessary and no longer postponable reform of collective bargaining, strongly reaffirming the confederal model and its specific peculiarities.
Alternatively, he risks having to resign himself to the chalking in progress by remaining on the bench and in fact leaving the field even at the entrance of new subjects who claim (more or less explicitly) their representativeness. Without forgetting that the advancement of the minimum wage undermines the very existence of this type of CCNL (which, for many companies, is in fact a sort of minimum wage ante litteram) with the risk that it is thus placed in a corner. important contractual welfare built over the years especially for the benefit of workers and smaller companies.
For these reasons, I find Confcommercio's choice to postpone the discussion of merit on key issues to better times absolutely incomprehensible. It is correct to state as Donatella Prampolini did "that at this moment it does not seem appropriate to further burden the costs of companies, which are painstakingly trying to return to normality despite the numerous unknowns related to the upcoming trend of the pandemic, but also to all the consequences of a deeply depressed domestic economy ”but this is not enough on the part of a large organization.
It is obvious that all the open tables on the side of contractual renewals are waiting for the Government to intervene with adequate tax and contribution relief but the holders of the largest national contract have the duty to indicate the path on which they intend to set out which cannot be or follow supinely the model proposed by the Confindustria “factory pact”, nor the relaunch of company bargaining which in the tertiary market is now at the level of the telephone area code, nor tactically preparing for a race to the bottom with minor associations, as if that were the problem.
On the measurement of representation in the tertiary market sector, on the minimum wage, on the evolution of contractual welfare, on decentralized bargaining and on new organizational and wage models that indicate, each for its part, a choice of path, Confcommercio should indicate the will or less than actually being in the game. And all this is preparatory to the contractual path, it marks the possible trajectories and identifies the priorities. Which are no longer those of the past.
It is true, today the need prevails to restart the economy and to bring the whole country back onto the tracks of a "new" normalcy. Consumption must resume, companies must be enabled to work without costs that would aggravate the restart. But that's the point.
To decide (or not) together with the confederal trade unions whether the national contract should be considered a simple cost to be demanded or compressed and therefore to be postponed for as long as possible or an opportunity to build and accompany the conditions for a restart. And establish, consequently, objectives, priorities and contents.
Being the holder of the most important national contract carries the responsibility of having a credible strategy.
Confcommercio has been able to interpret over the years and better than others, in the contractual field, the need of tertiary companies that were looking for a more flexible and efficient landing place outside the perimeter of their respective sectoral boundaries. This advantage, however, is neither an acquired right nor a given forever.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/come-va-il-rinnovo-del-contratto-di-lavoro-nel-terziario/ on Sat, 26 Sep 2020 05:56:56 +0000.