“Only a minimal part of the contracts surveyed appears to be signed by the workers and employers organizations that are comparatively more representative. It is important to have representation measurement criteria, a fundamental step to counter contractual dumping and low wages. "
This was stated by CNEL president Tiziano Treu, in a hearing today before the 11th Public and Private Labor Commission of the Chamber on the legislative proposals relating to union representation in the workplace, union representation and effectiveness of the national collective agreements.
"Many national agreements bear the signature of minor, less well-known trade unions that increasingly present multi-sectoral characteristics – can be read in the memorandum filed at the Chamber - This makes these agreements applicable transversely and indistinctly to various production areas. The consequence of this transversality consists in the disappearance of the traditional lines of demarcation that have marked over time the various existing "labor markets" at the level of territories, districts or supply chain".
The CNEL numbers show that, considering only the collective agreements in force (as they are renewed, or awaiting renewal because expired but in fact still in place), we have gone from 580 national agreements surveyed in June 2013 to almost 900 in December 2019. As of January 14 2020, 834 contracts relating to employees of the private sector and 19 NCLAs for employees of the public sector were filed with CNEL.
In the private sector, just over half of the employees are covered by the NCLA of the distribution, tertiary and services sector (36% of the total workers, equal to approximately 4.7 million people) and the field of contracts of the mechanical sector (18% of the total workers, equal to about 2.4 million people).
However, despite the large number of NCLAs in force, most companies tend to apply a limited number of them. In all contractual sectors (except in the printing and entertainment sector) the first 3 most applied NCLAs cover at least 70% of workers. In the distribution, tertiary and services sector (where 227 NCLAs are in force) the most applied top 3 cover 81% of workers. In the mechanical sector, 37 NCLAs are in force, but the most widely applied top 3 cover up to 98% of workers.
Overall, 39 NCLAs out of a total of 834 (these are the first 3 NCLAs most applied in each of the 13 contractual sectors) apply to 82% of workers. Let us remember that these are data communicated to INPS by companies through the UNIEMENS information flow, relating to the average valuesderiving from the declarations sent in 2018.