After ‘Article 18’, are national collective agreements going to be put on the block? Last week the leader of the employers’ confederation Confindustria announced he was pulling out of talks with unions over revising the agreement model. Without an agreement between the social partners the government can intervene and instigate a legal minimum wage which would, according to the unions, put an end to the system of national collective agreements to be substituted by company specific agreements. The three union confederations have invited Confindustria to return to the negotiating table and argue that legislation on a legal minimum wage cannot effectively replace branch agreements.
“We have no room left to manoeuver so that talks can continue in the traditional fashion. For us this is now a closed chapter,” declared Giorgio Squinzi, leader of Confindustria on 07 October at the end of meetings with its organizations members. Since the government’s invitation to the social partners to conclude an agreement before it implements a national legal minimum wage, negotiations haven’t really properly got underway. Cisl presented its reform project in July 2015. CGIL and Uil indica
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