The renewal of the National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL) for small and medium businesses has been ratified

The renewal of the National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL) for small and medium sized metalworker and plant installation businesses signed on 4 July by the Unionmeccanica Confapi and the Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm-Uil trade unions has been ratified. The contract, whose official signature occurred on 21 October, was signed following the employees’ consultations occurred on 24 and 25 July and will involve 360,000 workers, 34,000 of whom employed by small and medium-sized businesses in the metalwork sector. The agreement will last four years and the increase in minimum wages will be calculated on the basis of the inflation of the Consumer Price Indices starting from 1 November 2017, with a gross lump sum of 80 Euros, for workers hired since 1 July 2017, and it will be included in the remuneration of October 2017. Among others, it was established that the following would apply: (i) starting from 1 January 2018 a payment of EUR 60 for supplementary health care; (ii) a payment of EUR 150 in 2018 (effective from March), 2019 and 2020 (effective from January of each of these years) as a “flexible benefit”; and (iii) payment by employees not registered with the union of an extraordinary membership fee of Euro 35 for the negotiation activity carried out. The agreement requires that the employer affixes on the notice board an announcement about the request of this membership fee which shall be withheld with the remuneration of February 2018 concerning which all non-registered employees must express their opinion by 15 December 2017.