An employee referendum in November 2007 approved an agreement concerning the transfer of a business branch operated by the telecommunications provider Vodafone Italia to the transaction processing services company Comdata. More than 900 employees are affected by the planned transfer. While the referendum result was positive, it nevertheless expressed the concerns of the workers in relation to outplacement practices.
Referendum on employee transfer proposal
Some 914 employees of the telecommunications provider Vodafone Italia – distributed among the company’s various regional operations – are to be affected by a business branch transfer, which was announced in September 2007. Through a referendum held in November 2007, the employees affected by the plan approved the company agreement reached on 25 October between the three sectoral trade unions and the two companies involved, Vodafone and the transaction processing services provider Comdata. The trade unions concerned include: the Communication Workers’ Union (Sindacato Lavoratori Comunicazione, Slc-Cgil), affiliated to the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil); the Federation of Entertainment, Information and Telecommunications Workers (Federazione Informazione Spettacolo e Telecomunicazioni, Fistel-Cisl), affiliated to the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl); and the Italian Communications Workers’ Union (Unione Italiana Lavoratori della Comunicazione, Uilcom-Uil), affiliated to the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil).
The draft agreement concluded at the Ministry of Economic Development (Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico) covers the conditions of transfer.
Content of agreement
The agreement defines the conditions of the transfer with particular regard to protections and guarantees for the workers involved. The main points are outlined under the following subheadings.
Contractual rights
In the case of new recruits, Comdata will apply to any new intake of staff the same provisions as apply to the workers originating from Vodafone, with the purpose of avoiding a double contractual regime.
The transferred workers will be entitled to all of the rights and economic and legal protections laid down by the national and sectoral collective agreements, as well as to the benefits provided at company level. Comdata consequently undertakes to apply to the transferred workers the nationwide collective agreement for the telecommunications sector (IT0512305F) in force for Vodafone, and the supplementary agreements stipulated by the company regulating performance-related pay and other matters.
Pension and training guarantees
The agreement specifies that, following the transfer of the business branch, employees already paying into the pension fund will maintain their enrolment with the Fondo Telemaco supplementary pension insurance scheme.
Comdata undertakes to launch a training programme to ensure skills development and appropriate professional training required by the transferred personnel.
Employment guarantees
The two companies, Vodafone and Comdata, undertake to guarantee full employment stability during the seven years of the deal, except in the case of voluntary resignations and dismissals for just cause.
The agreement establishes that in case of bankruptcy of the Comdata group, Vodafone must undertake to find a third party to which all of the workers must be immediately transferred; alternatively, Vodafone must re-hire all of the workers.
The accord also provides that the outplaced workers have the right not to be transferred out of the municipality where they are working at the time of the transfer.
In conclusion, the agreement reiterates the seven-year duration of the deal and the possibility of its renewal by Vodafone. It also stipulates that in no case can activities be subcontracted. Hence, Comdata cannot resort to further subcontracts in order to perform the work outsourced to it by Vodafone.
Outcome of referendum
While the results of the referendum were positive, the outcome presented a mixed picture. The vote on the company agreement reflected the doubts expressed by the workers about the transfer. In the end, the agreement was approved by a relatively small majority of workers (57.4%). The turnout at the referendum amounted to 707 out of the 914 workers entitled to vote. Among the voters, 406 workers cast votes in favour of the agreement, and 291 against it, while 10 ballot papers were blank and/or spoiled. Different attitudes emerged among workers in the company’s various offices: for example, in Rome and in Naples, the number of ‘No’ votes prevailed, while in Milan there was only a three-vote winning margin on the ‘Yes’ side.
Reaction of the parties
The employee votes were more influenced by considerations about the advisability of the overall operation than by the proper merit of the particular agreement. This concern is reflected in the statement that the General Secretary of Slc-Cgil, Emilio Miceli, delivered after the vote. According to Mr Miceli – one of the signatories to the company agreement – ‘the agreement is an attempt to construct a system of guarantees and protections for the workers concerned’. At the same time, he confirmed the negative reaction of the workforce to the transfer operation as a whole, which was judged to be ‘a mistake’. In fact, the trade unions still question the provision of Decree 276/2003 (IT0307204F) allowing the transfer of a business branch even in cases where the branch transferred has had no previous functional autonomy. This is the case of the 914 Vodafone workers, who are not organised in a single functional area.
Commentary
The positive aspects of the accord are significant. However, the workers and their trade union representatives are worried about the outsourcing, not of a business ‘function’, but of almost a thousand employees. Vodafone has interpreted to the letter Decree 276/2003, which allows the outsourcing of business branches for which there is no pre-existing functional autonomy. This appears to be the most problematic aspect of the entire transfer operation.
Cristina Tajani, Ires Lombardia