Italian unions plan pensions action

Italian unions have called for countrywide stoppages on the day that parliament approves the government's plans to raise the retirement age for many workers from 57 to 62. This was the main decision of a joint meeting of union leaders on the issue, which also agreed to consider further action later this year.

The pension plans have been under discussion for months, although they largely disappeared from view in the run-up to the European and local elections in June - in which the party of premier Silvio Berlusconi did badly.

Now the elections are out of the way, the pensions proposals are back before parliament. The government hopes to have them agreed before the summer.

The unions have already organised two brief general strikes and a massive demonstration on the issue, and while the call for stoppages leaves the initiative at local level, another national general strike in the autumn has not been ruled out.

At the same time, discussions between the unions and the main employers' organisation on a reform of Italy's two-tier system of collective bargaining have restarted in a climate which those involved have described as "good and constructive".

There are, however, differences, not just between the unions and employers but between the unions themselves. The second largest union confederation, CISL, would like the company level of negotiation to be given greater weight, but the largest confederation, CGIL, is opposed to this. Currently company-level negotiations are much less influential than those at industry level.