Collective Bargaining, Digitalisation, Italy

(October 2016) Despite promises of additional funding to cover public sector employment, the latest figures announced by the government are a major disappointment to all the public sector federations. FP-CGIL, CISL-FP, UIL-PA and UIL-FPL issued a joint statement that attacked the government for its short-sighted policies and failure to provide any opening for serious negotiations on pay, skills, productivity and innovation. The unions will be stepping up their mobilisation beginning with a national protest in Rome on 12 November.

(December 2016) The public sector federations of CGIL, CSIL and UIL have welcomed the first steps towards re-establishing collective bargaining in the public sector after a seven-year freeze. The federations are looking to negotiate on more issues and ensure proper recognition of the skills and professionalism of public sector workers. Job security will also be an issue with action to deal with the spread of temporary contracts. Catching up with lost purchasing power will also be a priority with an EUR 80 increase set for the first three-year period 2016-2018.

(March 2017) The ETUC is calling for a pay rise for workers across Europe and in the latest initiative in its campaign reveals that wages are lower now than they were eight years ago in seven EU member states while in 18 EU countries wages have grown much slower over the seven years after the crisis than in the eight years before that.In the 7 years 2009-2016 real wages (adjusted for inflation) have fallen every year by an average of 3.1 % in Greece; 1 % in Croatia; 0.9 % in Hungary; 0.7 % in Portugal; 0.6 % in Cyprus; 0.4 % in UK, and 0.3 % in Italy.

(May 2017) The FP-CGIL and CISL FP public service federations have attacked the Anaste private residential care employers' organisation for signing an agreements with unrepresentative unions and cutting out the main federations affiliated to the CGIL, CISL and UIL confederations. Around 15000 workers are covered by the agreement which the CGIL, CISL and UIL federations had been negotiating. The three unions took strike action on 27 April to try to improve pay and working conditions and are highly critical of the agreement now signed with the other unions.

Eight years on since the renewal of the last collective agreement, the Ministry of Public Administration has confirmed the timetable for negotiations over firefighters' pay and conditions. The FP CGIL union is looking for a pay increase to recognise the professional responsibilities of firefighters with a minimum €80 a month as agreed in the initial public sector pay talks last year. The union will also be looking for improvements in pensions and ways of dealing with accidents and occupational diseases.

The three main public service trade unions in the health sector - Fp Cgil, Cisl Fp and Uil Fpl - took part in the first round of negotiations with the ARAN employers' organisation over renewing the collective agreement covering 550000 healthworkers. As well as ensuring that the basic pay agreement provides for the average €85 a month increase foreseen across the public sector, the unions are particularly concerned to address issues around work organisation and working time. They also emphasise that after eight years without any negotiations, there have been many changes in the sector in terms

Firefighters in the FP CGIL public services federation have called a demonstration outside parliament on 17 October. The aim of the protest is to underline the union's pay claim in the current round of collective bargaining as well as to call for action on a number of other issues including recruitment, pensions and funding.

Unions report a high level of support - 70%-80% in some areas - for the strike by doctors and health managers on 12 December. The action involved many organisations in the sector including FP-CGIL, UIL-FPL and CISL Medici. The strike was called in support of negotiations to renew doctors' contracts after eight years without any bargaining. But the unions are also raising issues around precarious work and training for young doctors as well as the issue of funding. The unions are criticising the government for failing to increase health funding as a percentage of GDP.

The three main trade unions representing workers in ministries and agencies - FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-PA - have welcomed the new agreement signed on 23 December that marks the end of almost nine years of a freeze on collective bargaining. Covering around 250000 employees, the agreement re-establishes the importance of the role of the trade unions and collective bargaining and implements the basic pay provisions set out in the public sector framework deal agreed at the end of 2016. The central government agreement has a wide range of provisions on leave, including extra leave for women who are

The public sector federations, FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-FPL, have expressed their anger in delays to negotiations covering over a million workers in public health and local government. The unions argue that the basis for negotiations across the public sector were laid out in the framework agreement of November 2016 and there is no justification for not moving forward quickly with the sector-level negotiations. The three federations are planning a mobilisation for 5 February to put pressure on the government and employers.

The FP CGIL trade union has signed a new collective agreement covering firefighters which has important provisions for a general pay rise, increased overtime pay and increased payments recognising the arduousness of the occupation. With these key pay-related elements agreed, the union says that negotiations will now move on to deal with a wide range of other employment conditions covering health and safety, provisions for firefighters who can no longer manage active service, training, insurance against occupational accidents and diseases as well as the overall organisation of the service.

The FP-CGIL public service union has raised serious concerns about the introduction of Amazon-style electronic bracelets for waste collection workers by a private company in Livorno. The bracelets communicate with waste containers to check they are empty. Union says that this degree of surveillance is excessive considering that there are already supervisors who monitor the work along with GPS systems in trucks. FP-CGIL says that employers should be concentrating more on dealing with the serious health and safety issues in the sector.