Italian unions and 13 employer groups sign framework accord on wages and bargaining

The signing

Cgil, Cisl and Uil signed a draft framework accord (ipotesi di accordo quadro) with 13 employer associations early on Thursday, 12 November, after a negotiating session of almost 18 hours. Reports place the signature at around 5.20 in the morning. The employer side includes Confindustria and Confcommercio, alongside Agci, Casartigiani, Claai, Cna, Confapi, Confartigianato, Confcooperative, Confesercenti, Confetra, Confservizi and Legacoop. The text sets rules on representation, bargaining structures, wages and the content of collective contracts, and adds chapters on health and safety, training and worker participation.

Talks behind the deal

The negotiations began in late July, according to Il Sole 24 Ore, and the talks started at viale dell'Astronomia in Rome. La Repubblica put the start of the joint session at 12.30 on 11 November, while La Stampa described the marathon as starting at midday that day. Maurizio Marchesini, vice president for labour and industrial relations at Confindustria, sat at the table for the employers together with the leaders of 12 other associations. The union delegation included the three general secretaries, Maurizio Landini of Cgil, Daniela Fumarola of Cisl and Pierpaolo Bombardieri of Uil. The last accord on the subject was the 2018 Patto della fabbrica, reached by Cgil, Cisl, Uil and Confindustria.

Reactions

Labour minister Marina Calderone welcomed the outcome and tied it to government decisions. She said the government's choice to give up exercising its delegation on pay and collective bargaining, and the introduction of 'Salario Giusto' in the decree of 1 May, helped create the conditions for the deal.

“A historic agreement that shows the value of dialogue between the social partners and marks the start of a new season for industrial relations and collective bargaining.”

Cisl leader Daniela Fumarola said the text was written by unions and employers in full autonomy after a long and at times harsh discussion. She added that while Italy divides over everything, labour and business had set serious and enforceable rules.

“It is a foundational agreement, in the tradition of the great interconfederal accords that marked the history of the Republic.”

Wages and inflation

The text defines the minimum economic treatment (Tem) and the total economic treatment (Tec). Individual collective contracts must include a periodic check, annual or biennial, to adjust pay to Ipca Nei inflation, net of imported energy. That mechanism already exists in the metalworking and chemical contracts. Platforms are due six months before expiry, employers must reply within a month, and talks open straight away. Where prices rise faster than expected, the difference is recovered through periodic checks, and when a renewal is delayed, a mandatory protection linked to inflation applies. The national contract remains the pivot, with decentralized bargaining reaching regions, districts and the smallest companies.

Fumarola explained the logic of the inflation clause in these terms.

“It is not indexation, it is bargaining: delaying will no longer pay off for anyone.”

Measuring the weight of unions and employers

The accord sets out how to measure and certify representativeness, a step meant to counter so-called pirate agreements. For unions, the measure combines members (iscritti) and votes, as already happens in public employment. For employers, qualitative criteria include the historical standing of the organization, and the quantitative criterion relies on Inps-Uniemens data. The text also defines the boundaries between one contract and another, which the sources call perimetri contrattuali. Together these rules govern how contracts are renewed and who is entitled to bargain for whom.