Friday 18 July strike in Lidl discounters for the company integrative

After another deadlock on the negotiations for the company integrative contract, the trade unions announced a day of strike for Lidl Italy staff on Friday, confirming the state of agitation.

This is what the national trade unions Filcams Cgil, Fisascat Cisl and Uiltucs make known after the discussion with the management of Lidl Italia at the table convened last week, it was on 10 July, which ended with a negative outcome. 'We recall that the proposal put forward by Lidl Italia to the national secretariats,' reads the note signed by Filcams, Fisascat and Uiltucs, 'does not meet the expectations and mandate that the trade unions have received from the workers neither on the economic part nor on the part concerning work organisation.

In short, an inadequate proposal that has triggered the strike on Friday 18 July to reiterate the need to find an adequate solution to the negotiation of Lidl Italia's company integrative contract, which has been going on for more than two years, in order to improve the company's proposals, which to date are not satisfactory. The national strike will affect all workers in the Lidl chain, including those employed in the warehouses, sales network and offices, and will take place over the entire working day. Within the framework of the state of agitation, the freeze on overtime and overtime will also continue.

On Thursday, Lidl responded to the unions' note by pointing out that the chain 'is the only reality in the discount sector - and one of the few in the Italian large-scale retail sector - to have voluntarily adopted a company integrative contract'. The communiqué goes on to recall that 'During the negotiations for the renewal, we once again confirmed our commitment by proposing a significantly improved package of measures for a total economic effort of an additional EUR 20 million, corresponding to an increase of more than 50% compared to the existing contract. Part of the constant attention devoted to employees is also evident from the fact that Lidl Italia remunerates retail work and provides for higher amounts of superminimum in the pay packet than those of the sector, as well as recognising a Sunday bonus of 135%, compared to the CCNL which is 30%. In addition, in parallel with the economic proposal, we committed ourselves to continue along the path already taken of establishing 25 hours per week as the minimum contractual hours, as opposed to the 18/20 hours provided for in the sector's CCNL; to provide for a change from 5th to 4th level for employees working in logistics centres; and, finally, to introduce experimentation to improve the planning of weekly schedules and Sundays. We remain convinced of the validity of our proposal, built on the fundamental criterion of long-term economic sustainability, and we hope that the trade unions will fully understand its value'.