Italy: new collective agreement for Lamborghini provides for greater participation of staff representatives on Industry 4.0 and data collection

On 24 July 2019, the two main Italian union federations for metalworkers, FIOM-CGIL and FIM-CISL, signed a new collective agreement (for the period 2019-2022) at Lamborghini, the luxury automotive company which employs around 2,000 workers at its site in Sant’Agata Bolognese. The most interesting feature of this agreement is the commitment to establish a bilateral commission with the purpose of negotiating the issue of so-called ‘Big Data availability’, which consists of assessing to whom the data produced by the company’s IT systems will be available– the workers or the company only. This commission represents a step forward regarding workers’ participation in the shaping of an ‘Industry 4.0’ production model. In addition, the company will increase its monetary contribution to optional parental leave (also available for men) by 10% in order to reduce gender inequality, while all workers will receive a raise in the variable portion of their salary over the coming years (from €3,000 to €3,800). According to Alberto Cocchi (of FIOM-CGIL and member of the Audi EWC), this agreement is also inspired by Lamborghini and unions’ willingness to promote values of corporate social responsibility. For instance, workers will be allowed to dedicate some working days to charity/volunteering activities funded by the company, as well as take 4 extra hours of authorised leave per year for looking after family members and pets.