Iren Group has always focused heavily on proper industrial relations, based on legislation and company and national collective labour bargaining, in compliance with the National Collective Labour Agreements of reference.
The Group and trade unions have signed a Group Industrial Relations Protocol, which dictates the rules that govern relations between the parties. This has led to a model being put in place based on the sharing of business decisions, which aims to optimise individual workers who, in order to enable healthy development, must be involved and grow in step with the entire organisation. The shared decisions lead to a sense of belonging and, at the same time, place the employee centre stage. The Protocol sets out the methods for approaching industrial relations based on three pillars: bargaining, participation and rules.
Industrial relations are divided into three levels:
- Group level, on topics of general interest and/or transversal to businesses and areas and the trend and development of business sectors, or industrial policies, guidelines on organisational structures, the economic results of the Group and the business segments, the harmonisation processes for company agreements and the coordination of reference National Collective Labour Agreements and company integration;
- Company level, on topics regarding individual companies or a cluster of companies, for which a Unitary Union Representative Body (RSU) is established;
- regional level, on topics regarding the single production unit, downstream of the company level, or on topics that concern several companies located in the same area.
Furthermore, procedures are defined for developing relations based on information sent to the trade unions, discussion and consultation (exchange of information and evaluations, acquisition of opinions, requests or indications from trade unions, verification of phenomena on matters specifically identified with a view to seeking possible points of convergence), and negotiation (discussion between the parties aimed at reaching agreements that are binding on them) are defined.
The Group’s Industrial Relations Protocol also establishes two participatory bodies: the RSU National Coordination and the RSU Executive Committees, while bilateral Committees (environment and safety, training and development, equal opportunities and welfare) are established for analysing specific issues.
Industrial relations in 2020 were characterised and influenced almost entirely by the Covid-19 health emergency, and the Protocol facilitated relations between the Group and the trade unions in a highly critical context. The emergency legislation has contributed in this sense. Based on the provisions of the Italian Ministerial Decree of 11 March 2020, which established the governmental commitment to promoting “agreements between employers’ organisations and trade unions”, on 14 March 2020 the government and the social partners signed the “Shared Protocol for the regulation of measures to combat and contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the workplace”. In compliance with this national agreement and the Group’s Industrial Relations Protocol, a set of rules was immediately drawn up, discussed and supplemented after discussions with the Company, local and national trade union representatives to adopt shared and practical measures for the people who work every day in the various sectors in which the Group operates, taking into account the specific nature of each situation and the various regional situations.
In this context, on 15 March 2020, the Group invited the trade unions to set up Committees for the application and verification of the rules of the National Protocol: 9 Committees were set up at regional and sectoral level. In all of 2020, there were about 70 meetings of these Committees to monitor and manage any criticalities caused by the health crisis.
At the same time, various agreements were signed at the Group level, with the shared aim between the parties seeking and adopting solutions for the management of work activities during emergencies. On 3 April 2020, an initial agreement was signed that avoided recourse to social safety nets, providing instead for various management tools, such as smart working, paid leave, online training days, and the so-called solidarity holidays voluntarily donated by all Group personnel to colleagues who have suffered a temporary reduction in their work activity due to the pandemic. The donation mechanism provided for in the agreement resulted in establishing a solidarity holidays fund, into which each employee was able to donate. In this way, the Group triggered a mechanism of solidarity among colleagues and “doubled” the number of days donated by employees. The agreement with the trade unions, which initially lasted 30 days, was later extended for the entire year, consistent with the continuation of the emergency. In addition, the agreement signed on 6 August 2020 also provided for a “Covid Presence Award”, a bonus mechanism for all workers who worked in the field during the lockdown period.
On 18 June 2020, the Group and the trade unions signed an agreement on the 2020 performance bonus as a fundamental tool for redistributing company profitability and one of the main levers for stimulating worker involvement and participation in the Group’s performance and improvement.
Following the trade union agreement signed in 2019, Iren Group has promoted, and will continue to promote in 2020-2021, the right to voluntary early retirement (quota 100), in application of current legislation.
Given the objective criticalities caused by the pandemic, such as to determine also the impossibility of holding meetings in presence with the trade unions, 2020 highlighted that industrial relations and the related agreements signed had as central elements flexibility and digitalisation, which define and determine new forms of work organisation, which involve in the process of change also industrial relations.
Consolidated practices provide that, in the event of significant organisational changes (such as the establishment of new business units or changes to the organisation of work), Company Management informs the trade unions in order to seek shared solutions, where possible. Therefore, employees are notified of these changes through service orders or notifications issued and distributed via the Group Intranet and/or e-mail and posted to company notice boards. In regard to changes to working hours, the National Collective Labour Agreements require that Management inform the trade unions and convene a consultation meeting for the purposes of a joint review. The time frames for the conclusion of discussions on the topic may vary from 20 to 60 days, after which the parties can take the action they deem most appropriate. The contracts also cover transfers, providing for at least 30 days’ notice in the event of an employee being transferred to another municipality, with the trade unions being informed with adequate notice in the event of collective transfers, which are usually followed by a meeting between the Group and the trade unions.
In 2020, the Group definitively lost three lawsuits concerning employees and former employees, to which the Group paid 48,971 Euro during the year.
N.B. The personnel data contained in the Sustainability Report do not contain the data of the former Unieco Environment Division.
