There are people who get hooked on data, like drunks at lampposts. They are not interested in shedding light but only in avoiding falling into their uncertain path. Let's talk about the buriana del minimum salary which held court throughout July and a few weeks in August with a mix of twists and turns, surprise moves, feigned retreats and sudden counterattacks, which brought me back to my high school studies. I was reminded of the canons of Euripides' tragedies, where the complexity of the narrative was finally resolved by the deus ex machina which was lowered onto the scene with a winch and unraveled the hitherto confused stories explaining to the actors and the audience how things actually were. Well, in this affair we didn't miss anything, even the demiurge under the species of Renato Brunetta, president of Cnel, to whom the government has entrusted the task of formulating proposals against the work poor, instead of identifying a small number, other than 9, to play the lottery on all reels. Already on 11 July, in a hearing in the Chamber of Deputies, the Cnel had presented a memorandum – approved unanimously by the Council – in which the Gordian knot of the problem was reaffirmed which could not be resolved with a law on the minimum wage. And at this point the focus shifts to the data. It seems certain that 3,5 million workers receive wages less than 9 euros per hour.
The sectors s(covered) by collective bargaining
But something doesn't add up. From the Cnel and Inps data – relating to 434 private National Collective Labor Agreements and 12.914.115 workers (excluding agricultural and domestic worker contracts) it emerges that 162 (37,3%) signed by the major confederate trade union organizations cover 12.517.049 workers (97 %) and 272 contracts (62,7%) signed by union organizations other than the confederal ones cover 387.066 workers (3%). These contracts are not mechanically counted as “pirate''. According to reliable estimates, the latter type of dumping concerns 0,3% of all workers (44). Which means mostly 3,5 million workers belong to sectors (un)covered by the collective bargaining. The fact is that the 17th Cnel Report of July certified that of the 976 National Collective Labor Agreements relating to the private sector, 553 are expired (57%). Private workers with an expired contract are 7.732.902, 56% of the total. Among the private contractual sectors characterized by the highest number of employees with expired contracts, the “Tertiary and Services” sector dominates the ranking, with 96%, followed by the “Credit and Insurance” sector with 85%. The situation relating to the "Transport" sector is quite different with only 6% of employees with expired contracts, followed by "Construction, wood and furniture" and "Service companies", with a percentage equal to 15%. It is serious that a sector in expansion, also in terms of employment such as the "tertiary and services sector" is in this condition of union weakness. The large confederations, for example, have ''given'' the crucial logistics sector to the Cobas.
The statutory minimum wage shortcut
Some evidence therefore emerges: it is a forgery to glory in an elevated position coverage contractual, when the renewal machine (the modalities of which are established in a series of inter-confederal agreements) is jammed; blaming the so-called pirated contracts which concern a small minority of workers and which can already be attacked under current legislation is a cursed fraud; wanting to resort to minimum wage by law it would be a shortcut that would sooner or later take the place of the main road of collective bargaining. Moreover, the unions' demand for an erga omnes extension of contracts that do not exist or have been awaiting renewal for years could arouse a bit of macabre irony. With the help of the Cnel it is necessary to address the crucial point of the paralysis of collective bargaining. Taking advantage of this contribution and the possibility of political pressure and the contents of the resolution approved by the Chamber last December (where the introduction of the minimum wage was excluded while the bargaining method continued to be privileged), the government could make two moves: 1) convene the parties to expired contracts, in particular, in the tertiary and service sectors involving the largest number of workers involved and follow the negotiations directly, perhaps reaching a take-it-or-leave mediation proposal if necessary; 2) convene the main business associations and trade union confederations operating in the sectors in which the contracts have expired to promote a framework agreement for an advance, in a one-off regime (exempt from tax levy) in which a balanced disbursement is envisaged, at least in part , to the inflation gap. In this context, the government could indicate a deadline within which to start or resume and conclude negotiations, reserving the right to make any proactive interventions that take into account the positions reached in the single negotiation and the points that most hinder a positive conclusion. As for the minimum wage, an experiment could be started (certainly not at 9 euros per hour, but at a lower figure), limited to sectors not covered by collective bargaining.
The case of Mondialpol
This path, natural during the glorious First Republic, seems preferable to the two weak ''schools of thought'' present in the debate: a) detax the increases established in the renewals (together with the detaxation of overtime, shift work, etc.); b) to grant tax and operating benefits only to companies in the sectors in compliance with the renewal contracts; in this regard there is also talk of revising the maximum discount clauses in contracts. In my view, it is about alternative not only useless, but with effects counterproductive. It is not individual companies that have to respond to and remedy any defaults by their representative associations, so there is no need to reward or penalize them unless they are allowed to remedy at the corporate level, thus shattering the national category agreement. In recent days, reality has shown more fantasy than imagination. The Milan prosecutor's office has investigated Mondialpol, the largest private security company, for illegal hiring and exploitation of workers, subjecting it to judicial control. The company, for its part, ran for cover by deciding on a substantial staggered increase for personnel who serve without the use of arms, or those who play the role of ushers and porters, in public and private institutions. The reason for the ''anomalous'' judicial intervention concerned the payment of Salaries deemed too low. In my opinion it is a beautiful and good abuse of power; a clear violation of paragraph 1 of thearticle 39 of the Constitution. which establishes the freedom of trade union organization. For decades there has been consolidated jurisprudence which, through article 36 of the Constitution, has ensured remuneration protection even in a common law system, where contracts are valid only for members. Called to identify the criterion of proportionate pay and sufficient the judges have always referred to the tables negotiated by the comparatively most representative organizations in the contracts signed by them. In the Mondialpol case it goes beyond what was agreed in the negotiations; the magistrates have arrogated to themselves the discretion to even decide whether the provisions of the contracts correspond to those constitutional criteria.
I guess this posting abusive it will be greeted as a positive fact, by those who are no longer able to do their job, such as the trade unions. Instead, we returned to the fascist system of work, when the judiciary of the sector, in case of lack of agreement between the parties, decided on its own. But trade union freedom did not exist then. It always happens to those who walk to the left to find themselves on the right.
