Non-compliance with a conciliation agreement signed is anti-union behaviour (Newsletter Norme & Tributi n. 161 Camera di Commercio Italo-Germanica – Vittorio De Luca, Elena Cannone)

The Court of Vasto (judgement 116/2022), has ruled that non-compliance, by the employer, of the commitment to reopen negotiations for the renewal of the company’s supplementary agreement, in breach of the conciliation agreement signed with a trade union organisation, constitutes anti-union behaviour. According to the Court, the conduct violated the principles of fairness and good faith; notwithstanding the content of the agreement, the employer’s subsequent conduct showed that it had no serious, effective and factual intention to renegotiate the terms of the supplementary collective agreement. This conduct, the Court concluded, damaged the plaintiff, FILCAMS, which had valid reasons to expect that such reopening would enable it to exercise its rights. On the contrary, these rights were ‘thwarted’ by the employer’s conduct, which put the organisation at a crossroads: adhering or not adhering to the agreement already reached with the other unions. The Court ordered the company to comply with the conciliation agreement and reopen negotiations for the renewal of the supplementary agreement, and to act, in that respect, in accordance with the principles of fairness and good faith.