The stone industry’s collective national labor contract renewed

Management was satisfied with the recent renewal of the stone industry’s collective national labor contract, signed on October 29 by Confindustria Marmomacchine, Anepla and trade unions Feneal-Uil, Filca-Cisl, Fillea-Cgil.

“This renewal is satisfactory because it discarded demands for unsustainable wage increases”, stated the president of Confindustria Marmomacchine, Marco De Angelis. “In fact, we shouldn’t forget that we were facing a demand for a 136-euro increase for level C, a sum much higher than the 97-euro increase that will be recognized in the three-year period. In addition, a set of big economic demands were basically rejected by the agreement. Another qualifying aspect”, De Angelis continued, “is the substantial confirmation of what was foreseen in the Interconfederal Agreement of March 9, 2018, in defining the minimum wage, which cannot be separated from a fundamental departure point, which is the Ipca (consumer price) index”.

De Angelis was echoed by Confindustria Marmomacchine’s Honorary President in charge of official relations, Flavio Marabelli, spokesman for the delegation involved in contract renewal. “For us this renewal is certainly positive because for our companies we avoided a wage increase that, in the terms the unions demanded, was frankly too heavy. The 97-euro increase at level C in the three-year period is furthermore lower than what was given the same level in the previous renewal in 2016, when the increase was 103 euros for level C, proving that the union demands were opportunely downsized through lengthy and at times hard negotiations but which in the end protected the sustainability of labor costs for companies. Another important aspect for us,” Marabelli continued,” is the basic abandonment of the CPNL, the Joint National Committee, which companies have always viewed as useless additional burden, economically as well. Finally, we are satisfied with the innovative approach to the safety issue, which, thanks to the 4.25 euro per month per worker that will go into a special expense account of the Fondo Altea, will make it possible to perform free diagnostic screenings of employees to prevent the onset of work-related and other illnesses”.