For a Human-Centered AI

Renewal of the Foundations Contract: Pre-Contractual Agreement Signed

July 25, 2018

The collective labour pre-contract agreement for the staff of Fondazione Bruno Kessler and Fondazione Edmund Mach has been signed

The negotiation for the renewal of the collective labour agreement between CGIL, CISL, UIL, Fondazione Bruno Kessler and Fondazione Edmund Mach has been long and thorough.

The complexity of the economic and financial context and the peculiarities of the work of those who do research and innovation and work in these entities have in fact required from all the players in the negotiation higher levels of attention, responsibility and vision.

The general goals of the negotiation were undoubtedly ambitious:

  • to ensure a fair and sustainable salary adjustment;
  • to ensure certainty and consolidate the important existing incentive systems;
  •  to reiterate the innovative nature of a regulatory framework conceived from the start to enhance the value of employees working in the field of knowledge.

These goals have been pursued with the common awareness that the activated bargaining level must correspond to a regulatory and wage guarantee function that would ensure fairness for all workers, while the second level negotiation should take care of designing the best matching solutions for the specific needs of the working contexts of the two foundations.

As far as economic terms are concerned, having clarified that the related effects are valid as of January 1, 2016, the negotiations for the renewal of the collective agreement led to the following conclusions:

  • the contractual vacation allowance currently in use – 0.75% of the salary as per pay scale – is included under the item of the guaranteed basic salary (salary as per pay scale);
  • the salary as per pay scale will be increased by 3%;
  • the total amount allocated to the productivity bonus was determined and then confirmed to a minimum of 6% of the total salaries for all staff;
  •  the Fund for the “self-financing bonus” was permanently re-included in the collective agreement for Foundations, of which it becomes an integral part;
  • permanent employees and staff with fixed-term contracts lasting 6 months or longer during the calendar year will be guaranteed access to the Provincial Integral Health Fund (“Sanifonds”) effective 01.01.2018.

As for the regulatory framework, the negotiations led to the following new terms:

  • staff career progressions – to the extent of financial sustainability – will be managed through a precise multi-year planning ensuring information, traceability and transparency. In this regard, it was established that the funding relating to the 2019 -2021 program will not be lower for each foundation, than a POE point, i.e. 139,000.00 Euros; during the three-year period, a specific evaluation of staff with a T4 classification will also be carried out;
  • a reward will be afforded for inventor employees;
  • an incentive has been introduced for work design and management activities;
  • the allowance for on-call duties will be increased;
  • teleworking and part-time work have been strengthened and smart-working will be introduced;
  • the set of paid leave was reorganized and new measures in favour of workers will be introduced;
  • leave of absence for personal reasons has been reintroduced;
  • the employability support and self-employment system has been strengthened;
  • the trade union participation system has been strengthened by implementing information, consultation and bargaining methods;
  • methods for the protection and safeguard of employees suffering from workplace mobbing or moral harassment will be introduced;
  • the “Laborfonds” supplementary pension fund will be integrated by the “RESAVER” fund, designed to facilitate mobility in the European context;
  • staff job classification requirements have been further described to ensure greater clarity of duties and limit the room for litigation;
  • a joint working group was set up in order to proceed with the overall examination of job classification requirements;
  • an ad hoc work contract was envisaged to strengthen integration in the school-work-innovation supply chain.

In addition to signing the agreement for the renewal of the CCPL (Province Collective Labor Agreement), the parties agreed upon the terms regarding the length of fixed-term contracts and time intervals between contracts; the latter will be signed shortly as part of further collective bargaining agreements for similar entities.


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