Italian union confederations sign key industry deals

Three major industry pay deals have been signed by all three of the main Italian union confederations.

This follows the major split earlier this year over the metalworking industry agreement, which was signed by two confederations - CSIL and UIL - but not by the largest CGIL, (see Workplace Report May 2003 page 8).

The settlements cover the private telecommunications (110,000 employees), postal services (200,000 employees) and food industries (400,000 employees).

All three deals provide similar average increases, with €91 extra a month in telecommunications, €100 extra a month in the postal service, and €96 for food processing workers.

The increases, which are each for two years, include an element which takes account of the fact that inflation in the past was higher than the previous inflation forecast, the basis of the previous increase. For example, the largest agreement, for food processing workers, includes an extra 2.55% to take account of this.

Dealing with the previous shortfall between forecast and actual inflation was a key part of the disagreement between the confederations over the metalworking agreement. Guglielmo Epifani, the general secretary of CGIL, was therefore anxious to highlight his view that the settlement in the food processing sector "defends and protects real salaries in an effective way".