Italy: TIM (formerly Telecom Italia) and the trade unions sign two important agreements

Firstly, TIM, which is in the throes of significant reorganization in terms of its 5G service launch, signed a company agreement at the end of July 2019, some three years after group management had decided to uphold the previous agreement no longer. In it the new agreement sets out fresh parameters for business results bonus payments. It also intends for almost 1,600 promotions, increased working time for those working ‘forced’ part-time (roughly 400 workers), extended smart-working arrangements that will impact 23,000 employees from October 2019, a reorganization of work for technicians working ‘in-the-field’, greater flexibility over work commencement hours, and a set payment of €700 as a form of compensation for 2018’s results bonus that was never paid. Secondly, and in a first for a business in Italy, TIM will be using an ‘expansion contract’, as intended by the ‘Growth Decree’ from 20 April 2019 in order to facilitate generational renewal and digitalization in companies with greater than 1,000 staff. TIM signed this second agreement on 02 August 2019 along with the trade unions and the Labor Minister and it will enable the hiring of 600 younger workers over the 2019-2020 period whilst in parallel lower working times and salaries for some 40,000. TIM will be launching a major training and re-qualifications project for its entire staff. The agreements were signed by the SLC-Cgil, Fistel-Cisl, Uilcom-UIL and UGL Telecomunicazioni trade unions.