Company agreements signed at Manpower and Obiettivo Lavoro

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In May 2005, the main trade union organisations in the services sector signed company agreements for the employees of Manpower and Obiettivo Lavoro, two of the largest temporary work agencies in Italy. In the case of Manpower, this is the first company agreement covering its employees. The main points concern trade union rights and the regulation of shifts, holidays and leave. At Obiettivo Lavoro, the performance-related pay part of a company agreement concluded in 2002 has been renewed

Manpower and Obiettivo Lavoro are two of the largest temporary work agencies in Italy (IT0410303F). The Manpower group has operated in the country since 1994 through its affiliates Manpower Italia srl, Manpower Spa and Manpower Formazione Spa: in total, it has 400 branches in Italy and around 1,500 employees. Obiettivo Lavoro - founded in 1997 as a cooperative and as the first temporary work agency with Italian capital - has a network of 160 branches and around 500 employees.

Employment relationships at staff-leasing agencies are regulated by the national collective agreement for the distribution and services sector. A new company-level agreement covering Manpower employees (see below) adds to those already signed for the workforces of three other temporary work agencies - Adecco, Obiettivo Lavoro and Trenkvalder. Company-level bargaining now covers more than 65% of the total workforce in the sector.

From the legislative point of view, important innovations in relation to employment services have been made in recent years. One of the new contractual forms introduced by the recent law reforming the labour market - the so-called 'Biagi' Law enacted by legislative decree 276/2003 (IT0307204F) - is the 'open-ended staff leasing contract', which in some circumstances may be concluded instead of a fixed-term contract, that is the former temporary agency work contract (IT0410303F). Moreover, the reform law provides for a series of measure designed to give greater efficiency and transparency to the labour market by increasing the number and role of the actors involved in the management of employment services, the introduction of a register of employment agencies, and the creation of a private system integrated with the public employment service. Companies enrolled on the register are authorised to undertake staff leasing, recruitment and selection, and outplacement activities. In August 2004, the National Association of Temporary Work Agencies (Associazione nazionale delle imprese di fornitura di lavoro temporaneo, Ailt), the Associated Labour Agencies (Agenzie per il lavoro associate, Apla) and the Italian Confederation of Temporary Work Agencies (Confederazione italiana delle associazioni delle imprese fornitrici di lavoro temporaneo, Confinterim) - the three largest associations of temporary work agencies, which together account for 95% of national turnover in the sector - submitted applications for enrolment on the register to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, thereby initiating a process of change in the employment agencies sector.

Agreement for Manpower employees

On 9 May 2005, at Ailt headquarters, the Manpower group and the main sectoral trade unions - the Italian Workers of Commerce, Tourism and Service Sectors Federation (Federazione italiana lavoratori commercio, turismo e servizi, Filcams) affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione generale italiana del lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Federation of Workers’ Unions of Commerce, Tourism and Similar Sectors (Federazione italiana sindacati addetti servizi commerciali affini turismo, Fisascat) affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions (Confederazione italiana Sindacato Lavoratori, Cisl) and the Union of Italian Workers of Tourism and Service Sector (Unione italiana lavoratori turismo, terziario e servizi, Uiltucs-Uil) affiliated to the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil) - signed Manpower's first company agreement. The deal introduced collective bargaining at company level in a group operating throughout the world and in which, in Italy, the trade unions have been relatively weak since it started operations there in 1994. The most significant aspects of the agreement concern trade union rights and the regulation of shiftwork and leave of absence for medical tests. As regards the pay part, the current performance-related pay system will continue to operate for 2005, but talks will begin before the end of the year to define variable pay components for 2006.

As regards trade union rights, the company undertakes to notify, before 31 January of each year, the number of its employees divided by geographical area. On this basis, a maximum number of 21 company trade union representatives are initially to be appointed. Thus established is the right to a plant-level union structure (Rsa) for each Manpower zone. Trade union assemblies can be held outside working hours for a maximum of 12 hours per year. Pay for these hours will be as established by the industry-wide agreement. The agreement also provides for the creation of an electronic notice board on the company’s intranet. This will serve as the principal channel for the dissemination of trade union information.

The agreement also stipulates that fixed-term contracts may not exceed 20% of open-ended contracts. In this regard, the parties undertake - in line with the company’s organisational needs - to encourage the conversion of open-ended contracts into reduced hours contracts, with particular reference to the needs of female staff.

Agreement for Obiettivo Lavoro employees

On 27 May 2005, Obiettivo Lavoro and Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl and Uiltucs-Uil renewed the pay part - ie the performance-related pay provisions - of a complementary agreement concluded in 2002. The preamble to the agreement states that performance-related pay is 'an important means to motivate employee participation in the company’s development and to recognise, by means of payments linked to corporate performance, the contribution made by individual workers and local structures to the company’s competitiveness'. The new incentive system is rather complex because it must be adjusted to the economic and regulatory changes now taking place in the employment services sector. In brief, the main features of the new incentives system are as follows:

• a variable pay component linked to the company’s economic performance will be paid annually if a performance target set by the company has been achieved or exceeded;

• a bonus payment will be calculated according to two national-level parameters and a local parameter. A bonus will be paid for each parameter if the target has been achieved. At national level, by the end of February in each year, Obiettivo Lavoro will define the financial performance goals related ti the company’s pre-tax income in accordance with targets approved by its executive board. This figure will be communicated to the trade unions at a national meeting held by the end of March. For example, for 2005 a first threshold has been established of EUR 3,500,000 and a second one of EUR 4,400,000. If the company’s financial performance is equal to or greater than the second threshold, the bonus will be the maximum amount envisaged by the agreement (EUR 1,614 at the fourth job classification level). If instead the first threshold is equalled or exceeded, but not the second, the bonus will be 50% of the maximum amount;

• a further bonus payment is paid at regional level if the area’s 'margin of gain' exceeds the result expected. In this case, a proportion of the extra margin is distributed as individual bonus payments up to a maximum of EUR 1,700 without distinction by job classification; and

• the bonus payment is divided into 12 monthly instalments and 'is paid to all personnel present in the company on the last day of the month in which payment falls due (the months of April and May each year)'. The bonus is also paid, in proportion to the full months of service with the company during the reference year, to workers who have resigned - for example, those who have retired during the period.

Given the complexity of the new system for calculating performance-related pay, the signatories to the agreement have agreed to organise training courses to inform all employees about the contents of the agreement, and also to consider the first two years (2005 and 2006) of its application as experimental. Consequently, every three months, on request by one or more of the signatories, meetings may be convened to assess whether changes should be made to the schedule of payments, but without altering the total amount of the bonus payment.

Reactions

The social partners have expressed great satisfaction at both agreements. For the main trade unions in the sector, the first company agreement signed for Manpower employees is a breakthrough for industrial relations in that the Manpower group has never signed a complementary agreement in any of the countries in which it operates worldwide. Massimo Nozzi, the national head of the Filcams-Cgil employment agency section, has declared that 'this agreement has introduced bargaining in a group notoriously unwilling to recognise the role of the trade unions. To date, our representativeness has been weak even in Italy. The three main trade union confederations in the sector have few members and a total of only six representatives. With this agreement all the Italian branches will have a plant-level union structure and will be entitled to have one representative for each federation in any branch and Manpower zone.'

The trade unions have also welcomed the renewal of the agreement on performance-related pay for the employees of Obiettivo Lavoro, stressing that it is the result of 'positive and transparent dialogue'.

Commentary

The innovations introduced by the 2003 law reforming the labour market, enacted by legislative decree 276/2003 and subsequent implementing regulations, has brought significant changes to the employment services sector, although the concrete results will become apparent only in the years to come. However, the staff leasing agencies with greatest economic and financial resources are already reorganising themselves to grasp the greater opportunities offered by a market that should become more competitive and transparent following legislation to facilitate the entry of private companies.

In this scenario of change, two of the largest companies operating in the new market - Manpower and Obiettivo Lavoro - seems to have decided to pursue renewal by involving their employees as much as possible. The agreements signed at company level may ensure greater workforce participation and flexibility, and thus become crucial resources for the management of change. (Diego Coletto, Fondazione Regionale Pietro Seveso)