Today Francesca Mariotti, General Manager Confindustriaintervened in hearing at the Labour Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on Proposals for laws on fair pay and minimum wage.

The introduction of a legal minimum wage in our country is certainly one of the most significant topics of the labour market debate in recent years, on which there are certainly useful opportunities for discussion.

The regulation of minimum wages constitutes a fundamental mechanism in the functioning of the labour market. This function has historically been performed by national collective agreements in Italy. The ability of collective agreements to regulate the generality of relative labour relations has been progressively diminishing.

Especially with the economic crisis, non-negligible percentages of workers with wages below those established by the contracts signed by the comparatively most representative organisations at national level have become widespread in some sectors. Therefore the need for a discussion on the introduction of the minimum wage is understandable and we are not opposed to it prejudicially.

However, although the introduction of a legal minimum wage, in the abstract, could - under certain

conditions - contribute to reducing the area of the anomalous situations now referred to, it remains that, on closer inspection, the real problem of respecting an adequate minimum wage is independent of the source that determines its measure.

In other words, the real problem, at least in our country, seems to be rather that of the instruments to guarantee effective compliance with the minimum wage level itselfrather than that of the source (law or collective agreement), which determines the size of the minimum wage.

In this sense, The introduction of a legal minimum wage would not, in itself, solve the problem of adjusting lower wages.

This result, exactly as is the case today for wage levels defined by collective bargainingInstead, it requires a greater effort to comply with the rules.

First and foremost, through the strengthening of inspection activity, which is the first safeguard of compliance with labour rules, including with regard to minimum wage levels.

There is also a question of selecting the quality of collective bargaining, which, if addressed and resolved correctly, would, in our view, certainly help to resolve the issue of an adequate minimum wage.

It remains, however, The issue of the relationship between the possible introduction of a statutory minimum wage and the existing collective bargaining system is central.

In fact, it is clear that, in our country, the failure to adopt a legal minimum wage is to be correlated precisely with the very high prevalence of collective bargaining, which, historically, has been responsible for identifying minimum wage levels for each category of workers.

In addition, it should also be mentioned that the European Directive on adequate minimum wages expressly states that average wages in member states where wage regulation is left exclusively to collective bargaining "are among the highest in the European Union".

And, again with reference to the directive, it should be mentioned that our country is considered, overall, already in line with the coverage rate of collective bargaining.

Therefore, on closer inspection, it can be argued that, to some extent, a reference minimum wage is already in place in our system.

Thus, there is confirmation that in our legal system the real problem, if anything, is to correctly define the relationship between law and bargaining.

A 'universal' minimum wage that did not specifically take into account the system of collective bargaining in force could give rise to the temptation for companies to 'disengage' from the set of obligations that derive from compliance with collective agreements, in favour of a unilateral regulation of the employment relationship that would, however, find its fundamental protection in compliance with the minimum wage. We must avoid in Italy the so-called 'flight' phenomenon from collective bargaining that is taking placealready in place in a number of European countries, which have adopted the legal minimum wage system, even though there is a well-established tradition of collective bargaining.

In fact, it should be recalled that the perimeter of the guarantees and protections offered to the worker in collective bargaining agreements is much broader than the mere minimum wage.

Moreover, it is hardly worth mentioning that the flexibility and adaptability that the intervention of collective bargaining autonomy ensures, although also characterised by certain limits, is certainly more appropriate and useful for interpreting, in the most correct manner, the differences between economic sectors and between different tasks, than the 'rigidity' of a legislative discipline.

We therefore welcome the fact that, in principle, all of the bills under consideration end up opting, to some extent, for a 'devolution' to collective bargaining.

But the technical solutions that then follow this positive basic approach deserve to be carefully evaluated because they generate a series of very important issues that, as they are declined and resolved in the various bills under consideration, give rise to concerns and reservations of various kinds.

We consider it necessary distinguish between the application of minimum wagesas laid down in the national collective agreements concluded by the most representative trade unions and employers' organisations at national level in the category, and overall economic treatmentwhich, on the other hand, all salary items governed by the contract contribute to its determination.

Maintaining this distinction is central to a correct approach to the minimum wage issue. In fact, 'confusing' the minimum wage with the total wage means introducing an element of strong distortion.

And in fact, setting an economic value by law ends up altering the free and autonomous negotiation between the contracting parties, inserting a distorting element that, not by chance, the European directive does not provide for in any way, because it clearly (and consistently) distinguishes between the minimum wage set by law and the wage identified by collective bargaining, rightly not providing for any kind of 'mixing' between these two distinct sources of wage regulation.

If anything, the real problem is to identify objective criteria for selecting collective bargaining by qualified representatives of collective interestsThis compares with the now uncountable number of collective agreements signed by unreliable and unrepresentative parties.

All the draft laws under consideration use, in several respects, the technique of referring to the 'national collective agreement for the sector concluded by the most representative trade unions of workers and employers at national level. This clearly entails the resolution of the long-standing issue of the measurement of the representation of both workers' and employers' representative organisations.

Po effectively entrust the determination of the minimum wage to collective bargaining.a is, in fact, It is essential to identify criteria that select the 'reference contract' in an objective and verifiable manner, for each sector, which implies the need to identify organisations representing employers and workers that are truly representative.

Indeed, there is no doubt, that the rampant phenomenon of so-called 'pirate contracts' needs to be seriously curbed (i.e. contracts signed by organisations with little or no real representative power), which undoubtedly constitute an obstacle to the identification of an adequate minimum hourly wage in all sectors.

In other words, in our view, the issue of minimum wage determination by collective bargaining and the issue of measuring the representation of trade unions and employers' organisations form an inseparable whole.

With regard to the measurement of the representation of workers' trade unions, a possible legal provision could well refer to the interconfederal agreements signed on the matter in all the major production sectors but, first and foremost, by Confindustria.

As regards the measurement of the employer representation objective parameters would have to be identified and this could be implemented either by agreement between the employers' associations or by law.

So far, however, the attempts promoted by Confindustria, also in the CNEL, to reach a consensus on criteria for measuring employer representation have been unsuccessful, due to the extreme distance of opinion on the matter among the employer organisations themselves.

Taking the number of member companies into account, in relation to the total number of companies, is a highly distorting and incongruous parameter.

Vice versa, in our opinion, The first criterion that should be used, but which appears to be the most objective in terms of the 'effectiveness' of representation, is to check the number of employment relationships regulated, in the sector, by a specific collective agreement signed by a specific employer representation.

Before determining any measurement criterion, it is essential to define the perimeter, the scope of application of that criterion, i.e., in simple terms, what is to be measured.

The solution to this issue should be left to a self-regulation of the parties i.e. to a major interconfederal agreement involving employers' and workers' representatives aimed at conventionally defining (and rationalise) the scope of application of contracts in the various sectors.

Confindustria and CGIL, CISL, UIL, in the so-called 'Pact for the Factory' of 9 March 2018, had already identified a solution to this issue.

Therefore, once the 'perimeter' has been defined, the actual 'weight' of the representation of trade unions and employers' organisations should be measured within that.

It is found that even though they are not members, many companies freely choose to use the national contract that a particular employer's association has signed, which means that that contract, more than others, interprets and satisfies the interests of those companies in resolving the issue of the regulation of labour relations.

Thus, unquestionably, a 'de facto' representation, resulting from a free choice of the company, is realised.

If that same contract is also signed by the most representative workers' representative organisations, it is quite clear that the minimum wages fixed in that contract should constitute the minimum reference for identifying the minimum hourly wage due in that production sector, regardless of the nature of the enterprise, whether industrial, craft, cooperative or other. The minimum wage of the relevant collective agreements should then become the legal minimum wage for each sector.

But if the employers' organisations do not come to an agreement on the criteria for selecting their 'degree' of representation, then the intervention of the legislator may be necessary on this point.

An overall design is therefore necessary, Confindustria, on 9 March 2018, signed with Cgil, Cisl, Uil the aforementioned 'Pact for the factory' where it is proposed that the national collective agreement for the category will have to identify the minimum economic treatment (TEM) and the total economic treatment (TEC).

The application of MET clearly satisfies the need highlighted by the Directive, i.e. the need for a minimum wage.

The overall economic treatment (TEC) will then consist of the minimum economic treatment (TEM), and of all those economic treatments - including any forms of welfare - that the national collective agreement for the sector will qualify as 'common to all workers in the sector', regardless of the level of bargaining to which the same national collective agreement for the sector will entrust its regulation.

We believe that this 'total system', agreed with the comparatively most representative trade unions in our sectors (which have, moreover, agreed to undertake an objective verification procedure of their 'representative strength', which is still ongoing, in implementation of the 2014 interconfederal agreement), constitutes the most effective regulatory framework to guarantee an adequate minimum hourly wage.

Here is the link to the document