Construction, start of negotiations for the new contract for one million workers

Negotiations for the renewal of the national collective bargaining agreement between Ance Confindustria, the Coop and Craftsmen Associations on the employer side and FenealUil, Filca and Fillea on the union side have begun. The new contract will cover more than one million employees in a sector worth about 8% of GDP. The general secretaries of FenealUil, Filca Cisl and Fillea Cgil, Vito Panzarella, Enzo Pelle and Alessandro Genovesi explained that it is necessary to "have courage and manage this complex phase of consolidation and development of the sector, looking at the general interests of the country. Ours is a system of industrial relations that has gone through difficult times but has recently chosen the path of professional and industrial qualification'.

In the renewal platform for the period 2024-2027, the trade unions demand a pay increase of 275 euro at parameter 100 (common worker).

Training, safety, valorisation of the RSLTs, inclusion and recognition of technical and clerical figures, and greater control over de facto working hours are among the topics that will be at the centre of the confrontation. Working hours will be one of the chapters that will be explored in the negotiations: 'In the new platform,' the trade unionists explain, 'we have included a hypothesis of reorganisation of the same hours and models, also as a result of climate change, ready to discuss without prejudice how to implement new business models in step with the environmental and technological challenge. Climate change and the generalised rise in temperatures impose a structural reflection on methodologies and safety devices. "For this reason, it is essential to provide for greater flexibility in working hours, leaving the regulation to second-level bargaining," the trade unions explain.

On safety, the trade unions explain that 'the objective of Decree Law 146/21, which amended the Consolidated Safety Act, is to provide a concrete response to the proliferation of cases of irregularities in maintaining the safety standards required by the law. The decree obliges the identification of a supervisor per worksite. The contract, consequently, must provide for forms of protection that allow this figure to be able to operate with certainty. For this reason it is required, in view of the responsibilities to which the appointed worker is exposed: a percentage allowance on the salary; insurance coverage in cases of litigation; that the identification of the person in charge be compulsorily among the highest levels assigned to that particular site being worked on, including company offices or local units'.