Collective labor agreements: +80% since 2012, but 6 out of 10 have expired and wages remain unchanged

The Cnel reveals that the expired collective agreements concern almost 8 million employed people - Meanwhile, the proliferation of collective bargaining agreements continues, but according to the CGIL it affects few workers

In the lasts 10 years, in Italy, national collective agreements increased by 80%, going from 551 in 2012 to 992 of 2021, for a coverage of 16,6 million employed persons. In this proliferation, to this day there are 662 expired agreements, That is, the 62,7% of the total. If you narrow your gaze to the private sector, last February 3 the agreements filed were 835, for almost 13 million workers involved. Of these contracts, 516 have expired (62%) and concern almost 8 million employed. The numbers are contained in the latest Cnel Labor Market and Bargaining News. From the count, he specifies an article, contracts in the "Agriculture" and "Domestic work" sectors are excluded, which have been renewed and registered in the Council Archives, but have not yet entered the Single Code of Contracts (established by the simplification decree of 2020 and entered into force on March XNUMXst) .

Many collective agreements for a few employees

In another study, also created with data from Cnel, CGIL and the Di Vittorio Foundation point out that, of the 992 collective agreements in force, only 246 (24,8%) have been signed by the three confederal trade unions, while 746 (75,2%) are been signed by other trade union organisations. Despite this, the agreements signed by CGIL, CISL and UIL cover 97% of private employees involved in collective bargaining (again without considering agricultural and domestic workers) and 99,3% of contracted public employees. In the private sector, only the first 33 contracts signed by the three confederal unions cover 82% of workers.

CGIL and the Di Vittorio Foundation therefore underline that "the multiplication of the National Collective Labor Agreements" interest "a small number of employees”, but “an increase in the offer of rules concerning the employment relationship can still exert downward pressure on wages and working conditions established in the most consolidated and representative collective agreements”.

Salary stagnation

Despite extensive contractual coverage, in fact, "Italy stands out, compared to other European countries such as Germany and France, for a stagnation of real wages – continues the study – the main causes of which can be found in the structural weaknesses of our economy, which determine a greater incidence of lower qualifications, a high share of involuntary part-time work and precariousness, as well as a widespread and substantial shadow economy supported also by irregular work". But other factors that characterize the wage issue in Italy are precisely "the contractual competition of unrepresentative contracts and some low wage minimums, as well as the long and unjustifiable delays in the renewal of expired contracts".

Italy is among the European countries with the highest contractual coverage, "already higher today than what the European directive under discussion indicates as a goal for the future - underlines Fulvio Fammoni, president of the Di Vittorio Foundation - However, this proliferation has nothing to do with see neither with an expansion of contractual coverage, involving a very small number of people, nor with better working conditions”.

According to an analysis carried out by OpenPolis on OECD data and published last autumn, Italy is the only country in the European Union where, in the last 30 years, workers' wages have fallen instead of increasing. Between 1990 and 2020, the average annual wage in our country fell by 2,9%, while in Spain it increased by 6,2%, in France by 31,1% and in Germany by 33,7%.