Italy: study shows company agreements in Covid-19 times are focusing on smart working and occupational health & safety

During the Covid-19 pandemic, sector and company level collective bargaining (excl. national collective agreement renewals) has adapted to issues specifically pertaining to the new circumstances and has defined new priorities, related to health and safety, the overhaul of work organization, and the need to involve employee representatives in implementing preventive measures. Thus the main findings of a study carried out by the central Cgil trade union Fondazione Di Vittorio observatory, which examined 326 agreements signed during the first phase of the pandemic, and observed how the March & April 2020 inter-confederal protocols (c.f. articles No. 11720 and No. 11883) gave impetus to second-level negotiations.
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The study covered 215 company agreements and 111 protocols signed between trade unions and employers’ organizations, most of which between March and September 2020.


Industrial relations, health and work organization. Of the 326 agreements in the study, half of which were in the manufacturing industry, 65% address industrial relations issues, and in particular the creation of joint committees to involve employee representatives when applying preventive measures. Unsurprisingly, 53.4% of the agree

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