New company contracts may derogate from Article 18
ROME – Article 18 of the Workers' Statute "has not been touched," said Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi yesterday. In fact, the government's decree law does not modify the provision of law 300 of 1970 which protects workers from dismissals without just cause or justified reason, establishing that in these cases the judge orders reinstatement in the workplace. But the decree authorizes company or territorial agreements to derogate in this matter as well. In practice, with an agreement signed by "comparatively more representative workers' associations at national level or by union representatives operating in the company", it can be established that in a certain company or in a certain territory, in the event of dismissals without just cause, otherwise from what article 18 says, the worker does not have the right to reinstatement, but for example to a reasonable financial compensation. The novelty – a revolution with respect to the taboo of the Statute – has obviously thrown the CGIL, the strenuous champion of article 18, into turmoil. Article 8 of the draft decree establishes that company or territorial agreements, as long as they «aimed at greater employment, quality of employment contracts, the emergence of irregular work, increases in competitiveness and wages, management of business and employment crises, investments and the start-up of new businesses", may derogate from national laws and contracts on many matters: from the duties to the classification of the worker, from fixed-term contracts to working hours, from the methods of recruitment to the regulation of coordinated and continuous and project-based collaborations, from the transformation and conversion of employment contracts to the "consequences of termination of the employment relationship, except for the discriminatory dismissal and the dismissal of the female worker in connection with the marriage», which continue to be protected by reinstatement. The same article, having positively assessed the new structure of representation and the effectiveness of company contracts shared between the social partners with the agreement of 28 June 2011, establishes the effectiveness for all workers (erga omnes) of the company agreements reached before 28 June and approved "with a majority vote of the workers": in practice the Pomigliano and Mirafiori agreements between Fiat and the unions, contested by Fiom-Cgil
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