Download article in original language : IT0111136NIT.DOC
In late October 2001, the Italian metalworkers trade unions and the management of Electrolux Zanussi signed an innovative agreement on the company's 'mobile plant' initiative - whereby it will move around Europe its entire production operation for clothes dryers. From 2002, production of dryers will be moved from Nuremberg, Germany to Porcia, Italy, where it will remain until 2005, when a new location decision will be taken. The agreement lays down the employment and training conditions for workers recruited at the Porcia plant, and gives trade unions an input into the decision on where to locate the operation after 2005.
On 29 October 2001, the management of the Swedish-based Electrolux Zanussi electrical appliances group and the metalworking federations affiliated to the three main trade union confederations -Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil- signed a new agreement. The most innovative aspect of the agreement concerns the company's 'mobile plant' initiative: its whole production operation for clothes dryers will be moved, before spring 2002, from Nuremberg, Germany to Porcia (Pordenone, Italy) and may be moved again after 2005.
The idea behind the company's initiative is to move the entire production chain for dryers to where costs and productive conditions are most favourable to the company. Electrolux-Zanussi decided to transfer production of dryers to the Porcia plant, which already employs 3,200 workers, after having assessed the possibility of transferring the plant to Poland.
Under the new agreement, the company will be able to move the dryer operation to another European country after 2005. When the decision is taken on the new location, the option of keeping the operation at Porcia, or moving it to the South of Italy, will be considered at the request of the trade unions. The decision will be taken after a joint evaluation.
The agreement provides for investments of EUR 46 million (ITL 90 million) in dryer production at the Porcia plant and forecasts production of 540,000 units per year. The new operation will employ 480 people: 160 will be workers already employed by Electrolux Zanussi at Porcia on open-ended contracts, while 320 will be hired on fixed-term contracts for the duration of the project. The company will also hire workers on part-time contracts depending on seasonal production variations. Recourse to temporary agency work will also be possible. Management and unions will assess the employment situation half-yearly.
A very important aspect of the agreement is its provisions on helping workers recruited on fixed-term contracts to find new jobs afterwards. The partners will plan training measures which take into account local training needs in order to increase these workers' employability. This will include the possibility of organising vocational training in occupational areas different from those found within Electrolux Zanussi.
The agreement also provides for 'fast-track' procedures for the recruitment of workers from groups in the weakest position on the labour market, such as workers on short-term contracts and women. To this end, the agreement provides that the company will use part-time and job-sharing contracts.
All parties are satisfied with the agreement, which marks the resumption of a united approach between the trade unions - which have in the past taken diverging positions on a number of company agreements at Electrolux Zanussi (IT0007159F). Maurizio Castro, the firm's human resources manager, underlined the importance of the agreement as well as the positive attitude of the unions. Mr Castro said that 'the company's need for flexibility was accompanied by the search for, and the achievement of, new economic and social solutions.'
Maurizio Cappellin, the secretary of Fim-Cisl's Pordenone branch, highlighted the importance of the results for relations among the unions. Mr Cappellin also stated that the agreement incorporated three main trade union priorities: the contractual protection of precarious workers; wage equity among all Electrolux Zanussi workers; and the possibility for workers on fixed-term contracts 'to re-enter the productive cycle at the end of the production period of the 'mobile plant''.