Workers’ Rights in Italy are Back in Fashion!
Monday 27 February 2017
IndustriAll Europe congratulates its Italian affiliated trade unions FILCTEM CGIL, FEMCA CISL and UILTEC UIL, represented by their respective general secretaries, Emilio Miceli, Angelo Colombini and Paul Pirani, for reaching a collective agreement in the textile and clothing sectors. After a ten-month struggle including a strike and national demonstrations, on 21st February , the three unions and their counterparts on the employers' side, Sistema Moda Italia (SMI), concluded a national collective agreement. The agreement covers over 420,000 workers in more than 40,000 companies, and runs from 1st April 2017 until 31st December 2019.
The new agreement secures:
- Upheld purchasing power until 2019 by a monthly wage increase of 90€ and a minimum wage increase of 70€;
- Improved health insurance and occupational pensions;
- More flexible parental leave;
- Strengthened focus on retraining.
After a five-year period during which 100,000 jobs were lost in this industrial sector, IndustriAll European Trade Union welcomes this national collective agreement as a positive sign to re-establish strong and participative industrial relations. They have achieved a real change in improving conditions for workers and greater operational flexibility for employers, in parallel to opening up a possible strategy to facilitate the development of industrial production in Italy.
Background news
Explanatory note in French
