The National Assembly of Fim-Cisl delegates of small and medium-sized industries (SMEs) will be held today in Bologna, attended by over 250 delegates from all over Italy, at the conclusion of the consultation process on the Confimi Contract signed on 22 July 2016, which affects over 80 workers, on the Unionmeccanica renewal platform, which affects around 300.000 workers, expiring on 31 October.
Among the main innovations of the Confimi agreement, and which will also be the subject of the Unionmeccanica dispute: Territorial Bargaining, active labor policies, the "Socrate" employment contract, the diffusion of Welfare, together with the individual right to training and at the studio. Confimi and Fim and Uilm have recently put it online a website to provide workers and businesses with information and assistance on the innovative tools made available by the new contract.
The national Confimi contract will be valid for three years, from 1 June 2016 to 31 May 2019. A salary increase of 25 euros per month has been envisaged at the 5th level, reset starting from 1 September 2016 to cover the first year of the contract, with the commitment to define further salary increases for the second and third year of the contract by April 2017.
There is a one-off payment of 75 euros for the current months of June, July and August. From 1 January 2017, supplementary healthcare is extended to all workers and family members with 11 euros per month paid by companies and 1 euro per month paid by the worker, the individual right to professional training is introduced for workers with a quota of 24 hours in the three years and the process of the reform of the classification is started which provides for the entry into force of a system of professional bands within the term of the contract.
Important innovations are envisaged in terms of working hours and work-life balance, including multi-weekly programmed working hours, smart working, splitting up by hours of parental leave, permits to encourage family reunification of immigrants. The institution of solidarity holidays is also regulated, with the possibility, on a voluntary basis, for the worker to transfer a portion of his overdue holidays to colleagues who need it for serious reasons of family care and assistance.
In terms of employment, the institution of apprenticeship is regulated to encourage school-to-work alternation and highly qualified pathways, and an important new tool is introduced, called "Socrates", for entry and stabilization into employment for young people, women and over fifty unemployed, or in the face of start-ups and investments with an expansion of the employment base, with a specific salary scale, reduced by approximately 15%, for a period from 6 months to 18 months maximum, with permanent permanent employment at Work.
In cases of non-confirmation, on the other hand, the worker will be paid the entire salary difference. The commitment to the use of conservative social shock absorbers in corporate crises and compliance with the social criteria of choice in cases of mobility are envisaged. Among other topics, there are guidelines for territorial bargaining, the strengthening of the role of the social partners in matters of training, health and safety, territorial networks for work.
The contract reached with Confimi certainly constitutes an absolutely important result for the category, because - in addition to enhancing the role of trade union relations - it strengthens the protection of workers on working conditions and on tools to support employment.
And it represents an important indication of progress for the many segments of the engineering sector, first of all with Unionmeccanica with which the negotiations will have to be opened, and also crafts, cooperatives, goldsmiths and silversmiths, which for too long have been blocking contracts that have now expired for months, waiting for news from the dispute with Federmeccanica.
It is precisely the latter, after months of stalemate, strikes and blockage of overtime, which seems to have convinced itself to reopen a new negotiating space. In fact, the meeting between Federmeccanica and Assistal with Fim, Fiom and Uilm has been set for 28 September at 11 at the Confindustria headquarters in Rome to reopen that confrontation.
