What happens to the collective labor agreement of the modern tertiary, trade and distribution sector
An in-depth analysis by Mario Sassi, author of the Blog Notes on work
The situation linked to the renewal of the Tds, Dmo and Coop collective bargaining agreements risks becoming increasingly entangled. And it is clear that the political responsibility lies entirely with the negotiators. Today, the declaration of a general strike by CGIL and UIL is destined to worsen the reference framework in which the long negotiation aimed at renewing the national collective bargaining agreements fits. On the other hand, the evident gap on the closure hypotheses between the various employer counterparts (Confcommercio, Confesercenti, Federdistribuzione, Ancc-Coop, Confcooperative-Consumo e Utenza and Agci-Agrital) weighs heavily. But let's proceed in order.
On the trade union side, it would be at least singular that Landini and Bombardieri, while declaring that the reasons for the strike at the center of the general mobilization promoted by CGIL and UIL are aimed at "raising wages, extending rights and to counteract a budget law that does not stop the dramatic impoverishment of workers" let their two trade unions declare themselves available to concessions in pejus on the wage increase foreseen by the IPCA (6.6% expected for 2023). As well as on the employers' front where Federdistribuzione and Distribuzione Cooperativa aimed, to close, at a simple discount on the IPCA while Confcommercio, perhaps to "get revenge" for old associative disputes, relaunched the search for an exchange that is impossible today.
The proclaimed general strike, being a political strike, will further radicalize the positions. I really don't think that Filcams Cgil and Uiltucs UIL, two of the categories with the largest number of members of their respective confederations, will be open to particular concessions on the salary increase. And it is enough to read their press releases to understand this. And this risks pushing the entire context into a situation of social tension that should be absolutely avoided both due to where the strike is located and due to the evident tension on the issues of poor labor that runs through the entire category. The strike is in fact scheduled for December 22nd.
According to the union, Federdistribuzione and the cooperative associations have openly declared that they cannot grant salary increases in line with the IPCA index net of imported energy goods (i.e. according to the provisions of the inter-confederal agreements on contractual structures binding for the majority of our counterparties). Federdistribuzione, as already in 2019, was aiming for a discount on salary requests to close the deal.
Donatella Prampolini, vice president of Confcommercio with responsibility for work and bilateralism, reiterated that we were at the beginning of the negotiation process: "To maintain the level of innovation and flexibility that has always characterized our contract, we have requested the revision of some now obsolete regulatory parts – from classification to methods of managing working hours from a productivity perspective – as well as updates on seasonality”.
Translated into a nutshell since we are traders. Federdistribuzione wants a discount on the (actually expensive) request for the full IPCA requested by the union while Confcommercio instead of the discount proposes a "goods exchange" with other contractual institutions.
Obviously there would be room to find a salary agreement in these times, although limited. In the rest of Europe the renewals remained below the Italian IPCA as Andrea Garnero recently explained to us in La Voce : “An experimental forecast indicator of the growth of negotiated wages for Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain , drawn up by the European Central Bank in collaboration with the national central banks of the euro area, shows that collective agreements concluded during 2022 generally provided for an increase of 4.7 percent for 2023, compared to 4.4 percent in 2022. Outside the euro area, in Denmark, an industry agreement was reached in February that provides for an increase of 3.5 percent in 2023 and 3.4 percent in 2024. In Norway, after four days of strike, an agreement was reached for a 5.2 percent increase for the sectors that set the general reference (exporting and manufacturing industries). In Sweden, industrial unions and employers have agreed on new collective agreements for two years, which provide for wage increases of 4.1 percent in the first year and 3.3 percent in the second”. Percentages, as can be seen, quite far from the 6.6 percent expected by us.
The term "innovation" in this context takes on opposite meanings depending on who uses it. For the unions, in addition to the proposal for a wage increase in line with the IPCA, it should have meant a renewal of the professional classification system and a strengthening of every employee's right to continuous training; the implementation of protections for women victims of violence and for parenthood and the expansion of the number of beneficiaries of supplementary healthcare and complementary sector pensions. The introduction of ad hoc rules on the phenomenon of commercial affiliations, franchising and outsourced activities, the reduction of flexibility and the containment of fixed-term contracts and the increase in the hours of part-time contracts and contractual minimums. Some of these requests are absolutely reasonable and already present in other contracts and also in many large-scale retail chains. Others add costs or organizational constraints that are difficult for businesses to take into consideration these days. I think even the most reasonable trade unionists know this well.
Two intransigences remain in place. One from the trade union side, which I tried to explain, on the intangibility of the IPCA, in this particular economic context, an equally unreasonable one from Confcommercio. This is why in my last speech on the matter I expressed my doubts about President Sangalli's silence. I also found him weak in his subsequent official defense on the reasons for the stalemate in the negotiations.
Sincerely claim today to define "innovative" requests to overcome or modify contractual institutions such as the 14th month's salary, paid leave and seniority increases, if it could have made any sense in negotiations a few months ago, today, with two out of three unions on on a war footing, it sounds like a banal provocation to be able to postpone a possible conclusion even further. The paradox is that entrepreneurial associations on the large-scale retail trade front cannot "innovate" the contractual text because they are unable to translate to a national level what is already done best by many brands. The only element that would allow an "exchange" on other topics "digestible" by the union. While Confcommercio now struggles to ensure representation in sectors in search of their own identity to which it provides, in fact, "only" a minimum wage ahead of its time and contractual welfare. As for the rest, it no longer has any recognized leadership or capacity for innovation on work issues. The result is therefore the most total immobility in terms of content.
I reiterate that a closure before Christmas would be desirable, precisely to prevent the matter of a contract which has expired 4 years ago and which concerns approximately 3 million employees involved in the dispute, from degenerating with very different consequences. So the question to ask is: "who benefits from this total deresponsibility and paralysis of the negotiating table?".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/cosa-succede-al-contratto-collettivo-di-lavoro-del-terziario-commercio-e-distribuzione-moderna/ on Sat, 18 Nov 2023 06:53:52 +0000.