Seems to move away from reaching a unified agreement on productivity by tomorrow morning, in view of the departure of Mario Monti for the European Council of 18 and 19 October, to which the prime minister would like to present himself with a pact signed between Confindustria and trade union representatives.
The CGIL leader, Susanna Camusso, has so far dodged the pressing of the Executive, and despite the tight deadlines, there is no official summons from Palazzo Chigi.
However, various press leaks have revealed that the Government has already sent invitations to trade unions and employers' representatives, a sort of last minute attempt to close the deal by entering into negotiations mediated by the executive, but the circumstance has been repeatedly denied by the secretary CGIL, which indeed piquedly commented on the claim to convene the social partners "by the minute".
Reaching an agreement seems far from close, according to the latest statements by Camusso and Fabrizio Solari, confederal secretary with responsibility for negotiation. The latter declared this morning that "if the attempt is to use the opportunity to weaken the protection of the purchasing power of wages, there cannot be our signature".
Solari then pointed out on the subject ofadjustment: "the meetings continue, but the distances remain", in reference to the possibility that the industrialists try to obtain the transfer of a substantial part of the wage adjustments - linked to the Ipca - to second-level bargaining, an option peremptorily excluded by Camusso herself.
If the achievement of a common pact is not within the CGIL's reach, the Cisl leader Raffaele Bonanni has instead shown greater openness: "If we find an agreement, and the conditions are right for us, this evening we will go to Monti, from whom I expect positive solutions". However, Bonanni sided with Susanna Camusso in relation to the adjustments, claiming the need for "stronger companies and heavier wages".
In the late afternoon of today, the Ministry of Development is also busy to "assist" the parties in carrying out the negotiation. An emergency meeting was convened which was also attended by the Minister of Labour, Elsa Fornero, as well as the heads of Rete Imprese Italia, Abi, Alleanza delle Cooperative and the association of insurance companies Ania.
This morning, in an interview published by Il Sole 24 Ore, Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli tried to push the parties to converge on the difficult agreement, to exploit the resources made available with the stability law (1,6 billion euro of which 1,2 in 2013 and 0,4 in 2014) and relaunching competitiveness, the Achilles' heel of local businesses which costs the Italian system no less than 70 billion a year, according to estimates by the Ministry of Development.
