Bordogna L. and Guarriello F. (2003) Aver Voce in Capitolo. Società Europea e Partecipazione dei Lavoratori nell’Impresa, Roma: Ed. Lavoro
Will Italy succeed on the road to transposition of the SE Directive?
At the beginning of February 2002 Cesos (Centro Studi Economici e Sindacali) organised a workshop in collaboration with CISL, one of the three main Italian trade union confederations. The workshop was a first attempt to encourage the social partners in Italy to reflect on the contents of the European Directive on the constitution of the European Company Statute (SE – 01/86) and on its implications for the Italian industrial relations system.
Discussions took place amidst significant general interest in, on the one hand, the regulation of employee involvement at European and company levels, and on the other, significant social and political instability at the national level. While the European Commission has tried to fill the gap in existing legislation (EU Directive 94/45 on EWCs and the EU Directive 02/14 on information and consultation) by reinforcing the “participatory” aspect for the purpose of informing and consulting employees within the new type of company incorporated at EU level, in Italy discussion still focuses above all on national issues, including the extent to which labour market flexibility should be enhanced, the subject of a White Paper written by Marco Biagi (labour layer and consultant of the Minister of the Welfare State under the Berlusconi presidency). A breakdown in the relationship between CGIL and the centre-right government abruptly followed the debate and exacerbated the climate of poor social cohesion and political divisions among the trade unions. This is reflected throughout the book.
The book consists of two parts. The first contains eight chapters by various labour experts, sociologists, industrial relations experts and national trade union officials (Marco Biagi, Pier Paolo Baretta, Fausta Guarriello, Guido Baglioni, Lorenzo Bordogna, Domenico Valcavi, Savino Pezzotta). It is followed by short reports by Enrico Letta (DS), Roberto Maroni (Welfare State Minister), Stefano Parisi (Confindustria, Italian employers’ association), Maurizio Sacconi (Labour and Social Policy Cabinet), Mario Sepi (President of the working party of the EU Economic and Social Committee), Tiziano Treu (labour expert).
The second part consists of various ETUC and European Commission documents concerning employees’ information and consultation.
As already mentioned, the book considers the implications of implementation of the SE Directive for Italian industrial relations. Although the book generally acknowledges the importance of strong social partner engagement in transposition of the Directive into Italian law and emphasises the possible negative effects of “opting out”, concerns are raised regarding constraints which might weaken the transposition process (as in fact seems to be happening).
These constraints largely comprise political and structural features of the Italian industrial relations context. Political problems may arise from transposition of the EU Directive in terms of employee involvement in the context of an SE. Lorenzo Bordogna and Guido Baglioni both point out that this is due to the divergent attitudes of the trade unions and the employers’ association to employee involvement, strongly influenced by a pluralistic industrial relations tradition in which collective bargaining is recognised as an institutional means of regularising conflict between employers and employees. This gives rise to the question of the effects of employee involvement on the scope and contents of collective bargaining. This is particularly relevant in the Italian industrial relations context due to the tradition of industrial conflict through which social unrest has historically been highlighted at plant level. The commentators view a more “wait and see” trade union approach to industrial relations as likely to raise tensions and uncertainty in the process of implementing SE employee involvement provisions. They argue that a unified trade union approach to SE implementation is an important precondition of ensuring that the Directive’s provisions on employee involvement are introduced and properly regulated nationally. This requires not only doing more in line with the traditional idea that bargaining is the only way of containing industrial conflict, but also reducing the centralisation which characterises the political and institutional pillars of Italian industrial relations. At the same time, as Treu remarks, the employers’ association’s (Confindustria) lack of openness to the employee involvement issue is another constraint which may hinder effective transposition of the SE Directive. This is confirmed by Stefano Parisi’s response to the reinforcement in Italy of a framework for employees’ information and consultation rights, as well as his problematic view of the transposition of the SE Directive. Furthermore, the “single channel” to which employee representation is restricted in Italy is considered an historical structural obstacle to participation which might obstruct the establishment of board-level participation in European companies. Other national examples of “strong participation” (such as Germany) illustrate that the “dual system” of representation (trade unions and other employees’ representations) could facilitate this process. However, no indication is given of how this might be brought about.
