Over a thousand permanent contracts and salary increases of up to 1.400 euros each year, thanks to the increase in shifts (from 15 to 20), which will allow the factory to be kept open all the time and build up to 1.100 cars a day. After more than 9 hours of negotiations, Uilm-Uil, Fim-Cisl, Fismic, Ugl, Aqcf and the company union representatives yesterday defined an overall agreement with FCA on the future of the Melfi plant, where Jeep Renegade, 500X and Punto are produced.
The agreement also represents the first test case for the Jobs Act, which provides for the possibility of stipulating contracts with increasing protection starting from March XNUMXst.
“It is a historic agreement – commented the national secretary of the Fim Cisl, Ferdinando Uliano – because it builds the conditions for making Melfi the FCA plant with the highest number of employees in Europe. But it is also historic because for the first time in the group we sanction that, after only six months, over a thousand workers with fixed-term contracts are transformed into permanent contracts".
The new shift, the unions explain, will be experimental until August 2, when the system will be tested. On the other hand, the thousand hires - which include 700 workers already employed - will have a structural nature and it is not excluded that they may increase. We start with an administration contract, which will be transformed within six months into permanent contracts. Another 500 workers will be transferred from other sites.
"The truly innovative agreement signed at the Melfi FCA on the hiring of a thousand permanent workers is the union's best response to populism, sterile antagonism and to those who have only cheered in recent years for Fiat's disengagement in our country - commented the general secretary of the Cisl, Anna Maria Furlan -. Let's hope that the Government and all the political forces will also recognize the just merits not only of the company, but above all of those in the union who have taken on the responsibilities of favoring Fiat's investments. This is a model and a testimony of how work can be concretely created through an agreement with the union”.
