“We want to sign revolutionary contracts.” And Carlo Bonomi explains how: no increase in employees, freedom to fire

After three interviews in three days broadcast by Confindustria leaders in three different major newspapers, the president Carlo Bonomi complaint, in an internal letter addressed to the presidents of all the associations of the system, “Intimidation of companies to shut up.” In short, the theme of “Anti-business sentiment” that the industrial leader sniffs in the air every time he steps foot on Viale dell’Astronomia. Then the letter touches on many of the points that were addressed in these days. The first, of course, that of renewal of collective agreements. In fact, ten million Italian workers are waiting for new agreements as the previous ones have expired, in some cases for years or decades.

“To the accusation that the union leaders have made to Confindustria of not wanting the contracts, we responded clearly that Confindustria wants to sign and renew the contracts. We just want them to ‘revolutionize’, Bonomi writes on the occasion of his first 100 days of presidency. In the specific letter of Bonomi “Revolutionary contracts compared to the old exchange of the early 20th century between wages and hours. Not because we are revolutionaries, an adjective that simply does not suit us, but – he explains – because in the meantime it is work and it is the technologies, markets and products, the ways of producing and distributing them, those that have been revolutionized, all and infinite respect. decades ago. “Bonomi, in view of the table with the next September 7 Therefore, it indicates to industrialists that this is one position to be held “with great energy”, with “clarity and firmness”, with “all the balance but also with all the necessary determination”. A call to arms that shows already important defections.

No to payroll increases – So far the line Bonomi was not going to accept salary increases since there is no inflation. Not even for those categories such as employees in the private health or food industry who they continued to go to work during the pandemic. At most a few concessions in terms of corporate welfare, all interventions with heavy tax concessions for companies. A line however unauthorized openly by giants like Barilla, Ferrero or Coca Cola Italia which, on the other hand, signed the new collective food contract that provides for salary increases (at full capacity, that is, from 2023, 119 euros gross per month on average). The “rebels” will appear before the president on September 9.

Today it was also announced that On September 16 there will be a national strike of private health workers who will fold their arms in protest “The not definitive subscription by the counterparties or Aiop (Italian Association of private hospitals headed by Confindustria) and Aris (Religious Association of socio-sanitary institutes), of the preliminary agreement reached on June 10 on the renewal of the contract “

Freedom to shoot – The government’s decision to extend social safety nets and legally ban layoffs amid the Covid emergency “could be justified,” but “extending it indefinitely is a very risky mistake,” Bonomi says in his letter. “The longer the duo lasts in time ‘cig for everyone: there are no layoffs and the effects of this “labor freeze” “could be serious, in social terms and for companies”, he claims. For some, this type of “anesthesia” could mean “‘when awakening the beginning of the insolvency process”. Bonomi, for his part, raises the need for a reform of employment policies “Profoundly different”, oriented to active and not passive policies, starting with the next budget law. A “comprehensive and systemic” reform.

It should be remembered that the layoffs freeze (the cost of which was borne by general taxes and not by companies, through the Cig Covid) was imposed by the government with the hope that in the meantime the economy would begin to show signs of recovery, limiting the impact on employment. Meanwhile, the relief valve for companies has been forward contracts, which are almost never renewed once they have expired.

Money should only go to companies – Another leitmotif of Bonomi’s thought reappears in the letter. The aid to overcome the pandemic must go to companies, much more than what has happened so far. Enough of the “rain subsidies”, formula wanted by the president to indicate the support that is going to needy individuals and families. “If we are not united in the priority objectives for which we fight, in the rejection of the controversy and even the attempts to intimidate us,The attempt to transform Italy will be even more difficult now. in that country din permanent innovation capable of welcoming and retaining our children that, we know, can and should be ”.” A season awaits us – he writes – in which demagoguery runs the risk of being the most fraudulent of all seductions. And, at the same time, in which the cost of incompetence outweighs the benefits of those who benefit from it today ”.

Beautiful words that collide, however, with a reality that sees Italian private companies among the last in Europe by the proportion of resources allocated to research, development and innovation. Around 0.5% of GDP, less than half that of France or Germany. But certainly everything would be different if the only concrete “revolutionary” proposal with which Confindustria was presented to the States General last June had been accepted: Give us back 3.4 billion excise taxes on energy. For Bonomi, who a few days ago denied that Confindustria is “a strong power”, it really does not downgrade him that Palazzo Chigi does not fulfill the wishes of the industrialists. And then any occasion is good for pummel the executive: “The many specific interventions, fragmented bonuses and new funds opened in each ministry, they certainly weren’t the articulate and effective response we expected “. And again: active labor policies “cannot be implemented with the Basic income“, Whose current configuration must be” disassembled “, says Bonomi. We need to “overcome the limits” of the current system of labor policies, focusing among other things on training and professional retraining, relocation and re-employment, the president of Confindustria also underlines, referring to the proposal for a “comprehensive” reform, in ten points, sent in mid-July to the government and unions.

The infections? Only fault of others – The laundry is washed at home. The internal letter could have made some reference to themisuse of Covid Cig implemented by some companies or perhaps some hint of self-criticism about factory infections that continue to occur in factories. Nothing of that. In fact, Bonomi liquidates as “absolute false ” criticism of companies for “having opposed the closure of some areas of the country before the spread of Covid-19 ″. However, the president of Confindustria does not skimp beat all the others. “We are not yet in the anti-Covid security measures,” he writes. And he underlines: “That the issue after so many months, unfortunately, remains unresolved, attested by two ongoing events.” He then focuses on the “deep uncertainties about schools reopening in September, that beyond the ban on 2.4 million wheelchair benches identified as priorities, there is still no precise answer to the central question: what will happen in institutions in the presence of infections? ”. Then there is the issue for directors, as it was raised to entrepreneurs in the workplace, “of the shield regarding criminal liability in case of contagion.” Bonomi also points out “The experience of lost checks and massive swabs when returning from vacations in the countries placed by the Government on the list of mandatory controls. “And as” another confirmation “adds” the failure of the Immune application. “