Because the draft law on participation has a decisive value for Italy

The presentation by the CISL of a popular initiative bill on participation marks a new chapter in the recent history of industrial relations in Italy. Looking at the last decade, in fact, two major phases emerge: the first, triggered by the advent of the Monti and Renzi governments, characterized by a progressive loss of centrality of intermediate bodies (including trade unions) due to a line of government based on disintermediation; the second, coinciding with the pandemic crisis and the Draghi government, in which the union has rediscovered part of its lost protagonism, playing a decisive role in the rapid reformulation of the rules on the labor market, in particular in the field of smart working and health and safety. Today a third phase is opening: politics and the union are once again relating as equals in a traditional dialectical path. The presence of a strong political government, legitimized by broad popular consensus, puts a coherent idea of ​​economic policy and labor market reform on the table. In this way he solicits the union, called to participate in a new reformist season. He does it openly, speaking to all acronyms, beyond the ideological nuances, and respecting trade union autonomy. At the same time, the reformist trade union stimulates the government by appealing directly to the workers and presenting a popular initiative bill on a key point of our constitutional order – largely unimplemented so far – such as participation. If it is true that representation remains in crisis, the union proves that it is still a vital body of our society.

The proposal on participation constitutes an alternative response to the minimum wage, both from a theoretical and cultural point of view and from a practical point of view. In fact, participation rhymes with collaboration, addressing both entrepreneurs and workers, called to enter a new paradigm of work organization based on cooperation and no longer – as still in some sectors or territories – on opposition. It is a necessary path, also to respond to today’s great challenges (actually dating back to the past): “poor work” and low productivity. Participation is the recipe for finally raising wages in the long run and in a structural way; as opposed to the minimum wage, which would deplete industrial relations and squeeze wage levels downwards. The CISL initiative encourages participation not only in the decision-making bodies of the company (in line with article 46 of the Constitution) but also in the economic-financial, organizational and consultative ones.

In fact, where there is shared responsibility, protection for workers improves. This has been seen with the diffusion of second-level bargaining, whether territorial or corporate, which has allowed a constant growth of salary treatments, considering, in addition to the fixed part, also the variable one made up of overtime, bonuses and company welfare. It is also in collaboration that the post-Covid “new order” is settling, in which companies are no longer the same as before and are trying to structure the most effective practices that emerged during the pandemic for the purpose of reconciling work-family and remodeling business processes for objectives. Participation therefore does not represent an extemporaneous step, but arrives – precisely today – at the maturation of a dynamic path that companies and trade unions have undertaken together. The task of the policy will be to verify the conditions for all of this to be codified in a clear and effective manner. Certainly, never before in republican history, times seem to be so ripe.

Lorenzo Malagola he is a deputy of the Brothers of Italy.