Insurance, the contract to the test of doubled inflation

The contract of the almost 47,000 employees of insurance companies does not seem to stand the test of inflation between 2022 and 2023. The average increase of EUR 205 (level four, class seven) granted to the workers in the November 2022 agreement, which covered the period 2021-2024, corresponded to approximately 9.3%. If we take the HICP, i.e. the consumer price index net of imported energy goods, which is the reference for contract renewals, it was 6.6% in 2022 and 6.9% in 2023. Added together, this is more than 13% in just two years. If we then take the entire period that the contract covers, we are approaching almost double that. So? On Monday Ania and the unions will meet for an assessment of any critical points. While it is true that the companies' profits, as well as the sector in general, are not exactly comparable to those of credit, it does not escape the workers that the increase they have received is less than half that of their banking cousins, with whom they increasingly interface in bancassurance activities.

To better understand the paths that could be followed, the text of the contract signed by Ania and the unions in November 2022 could be useful. So might a comparison with some industry contracts, although white-collar finance workers generally suffer from comparisons with manufacturing workers. The insurance contract did not provide for automatisms, unlike, for example, the economic part of the metalworkers' contract, signed by Federmeccanica and Assistal with Fiom, Fim and Uilm, which uses the ex post adjustment method. Thus, the verification meeting in June became tout court an inflation adjustment that ratified the highest increase in the history of the blue overalls, who, at the average level, received almost 311 euro (310.90) of increase in the last renewal. Although the mechanism on which the contract for the wood and furniture industry, signed by Federlegno and the trade unions, is based is different from that of the metalworkers, in essence, even in the sector the verification meetings lead to inflation adjustments. In recent months, for the 200,000 workers in the woodworking and furnishing sector, an increase of 124.71 euro on the minimums has arrived, bringing the average increase of the last contract to over 260 euro, if we consider the last 124, 71 euro, added to the 143.80 euro paid in July 2023, to which a further adjustment will then have to be added, scheduled for January 2025, with which the total increase will be defined, given the ex post adjustment mechanism used in the sector. The texts of both contracts speak clearly and do not leave much room for negotiation. In the case of insurance, the companies have 'protected' themselves with a text that is less stringent. Certainly one cannot speak of automatism. But let us see.

In the event of significant deviations, Ania and the trade unions reserved the right to make an overall assessment of any critical issues. In the last paragraph, before the signatures, entitled "Verification", the text states that "by way of exception, the parties agree that if price trends should be characterised by extraordinary increases in inflation, measured by the Ipca index net of imported energy and the labour market should register heavy negative repercussions linked to the economic crisis deriving from the complex international political framework, the parties may take steps to verify the consistency between the inflation forecast for defining the contractual increases recognised at the time of renewal and the inflation actually observed. If significant deviations are found, the Parties themselves will meet by 31-12-2023 for an overall assessment of any critical issues'. According to union sources, Ania did not disown the differences. However, partly because of the way the text of the contract is written, partly because of the extent of inflation, at least last December the path of the inflation adjustment did not seem obvious. While a mediation would have an important political value for good industrial relations, it must also be said that in the sector there is a tendency to renew integrative agreements before the national contract, which one tries to keep rather light.

The increase that had been defined by the 2022-2024 insurance contract was EUR 205 at the average reference level, which contemplated inflation at around 9.37%. According to the trade unions' calculations, provisional data say that if we take only the period 2022-2023 the inflation is more than 13%, if we take the whole period, with estimates for 2024, it is a little less than double what was stipulated in the agreement. In the event of a settlement, good news for the workers, less so for the companies. There are two (or perhaps three) roads that the parties are facing: the first is that of an adjustment that would bring the insurance companies not so far behind their banking cousins, the second is that of providing for a recovery in the next contract renewal: the unions are already at work on the new platform and the idea could be to present it in advance, with the 2023 bill. The verification meeting on Monday 15 July could indicate the road ahead for the 47,000 insurers and companies where, with a broader look, it must be said that a rather stable employment trend has been observed over the last decade.