A metalworking company in the province of Brescia in northern Italy, Metalcam Spa, has offered its employees the opportunity to purchase 10% of the company’s share capital. Around 100 out of 270 workers have already signed up for the initiative, to which some important amendments have been made following talks with the trade unions.
Company background
The metalworking company Metalcam SpA has its headquarters in Valcamonica in northern Italy and operates in the forging industry. Founded in 1907, it now belongs to the Carlo Tassara SpA group, whose Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Roman Zaleski – a financier and shareholder in numerous large companies and banks including Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Popolare Italiana and Telecom Italia. Metalcam employs about 270 workers and operates in both domestic and foreign markets: some 45% of its production output is sold in Italy, 41% in European countries, and 14% outside of Europe.
In 2005, the company recorded a sales volume amounting to around €82 million and its profits came to over €20 million. Its current favourable economic situation is accompanied by even more encouraging forecasts for the coming years: according to the company, gross estimated earnings will reach €26 million, and in 2008, profits are predicted to rise to almost €30 million.
The employee shareholding scheme, mooted by the company in April 2005, envisages the transfer of 10% of the company’s share capital to its employees. According to the project description, the proposal has been prompted by the Tassara group’s tradition of good relations with the local community and its employees, the current expansion of the market, its conviction that companies also have ‘social value’, and the strategic importance of workforce involvement in the company.
Main provisions of shareholding scheme
The main provisions of the original employee shareholding scheme were as follows:
- the sale of 10% of Metalcam’s shares, at a price of €15 million, by the Tassara group to a company specifically set up by the employees. This company would be named Lavoro SpA and would have a share capital worth €2 million.
- the company’s employees could allocate their end-of-service allowance and/or other economic resources to Lavoro. The estimated amount of capital contribution by employees was €6 million. Some 33% of the amount paid by each worker would be used to establish Lavoro’s share capital, while the remaining 67% would be converted into a bonded loan from which the employee would receive a half-yearly coupon until the loan had been redeemed.
- a bank loan, estimated to be worth €9 million, given to Lavoro would support the share purchase and offset the amount lacking after the employees’ capital contributions.
- the loan would be repaid according to a graduated schedule through the allocation of Metalcam’s profits to Lavoro.
Amending original proposal
Following the company’s proposal, talks were held between management and the two unions representing employees in the company – the Italian Federation of White-Collar and Blue-Collar Metalworkers (Federazione Impiegati Operai Metallurgici, Fiom-Cgil) and the Italian Federation of Metalworkers (Federazione Italiana Metalmeccanici, Fim-Cisl). Arising from these talks, substantial changes were made to the scheme, with a view to giving the employees greater economic protection – namely, through easier withdrawal in cases still to be defined and a more advantageous system for calculating the dividend. The changes also allowed for more substantial involvement of employees through the:
- appointment of a Metalcam board member by the workers who are of Lavoro, that is those who have signed up to the project;
- adoption of the ‘one person, one vote’ principle for decisions of crucial importance defined by the Lavoro statute.
Reactions to proposal
Initial reactions to the proposal have differed between the two trade unions involved. While Fim-Cisl has welcomed the initiative, Fiom-Cgil, which is the majority trade union in the company, has been more cautious but nevertheless expressed its willingness to take part in the initiative. Secretary of the local section of Fiom, Francesco Ballerini, outlined: ‘The trade union is not a stockbroker: it is up to the individual worker to make the necessary calculations.’ In contrast, Alessandro Poni from the territorial secretariat of Fim-Cisl expressed his satisfaction with the result achieved, ‘which acknowledges the efforts made by Fim in bargaining and its determination to stay at the negotiating table, despite its strong doubts’.
Meanwhile, Massimo Cocchi, Managing Director of Metalcam, commented that the company ‘has once again shown that our business activities are rooted in the local community and that our employees’ quality of life is important to us. For the good of Valcamonica, I hope that other flourishing companies will follow our example’.
Edoardo Della Torre, Ires Lombardia