Rome, 6 May 2026 - The Memorandum of Understanding between Confindustria and ANLA - Associazione Nazionale Lavoratori Anziani (National Association of Elderly Workers) was signed today at the Confindustria headquarters in Rome. The aim is to promote joint initiatives to enhance the contribution of elderly workers, foster intergenerational dialogue and strengthen the link between companies, people and territories. Signing the agreement were Maurizio Marchesini, Confindustria Vice President for Labour and Industrial Relations, and Edward Patriarch, National President of ANLA.

Work and enterprise represent two fundamental pillars of the economic and social development of the country. In this framework, the experience gained by older workers constitutes a precious heritage: a capital of skills, memory, values and sense of belonging that can contribute to people's wellbeing, business growth and territorial cohesion. The objective of the initiative is the creation of social value through the strengthening of the link between companies, people and territorial communities. The plurality of projects that will be promoted can contribute to the improvement of the corporate climate through dialogue between generations, the promotion of networking and the sharing of experiences, also through the development of corporate welfare initiatives, favouring mentoring and training paths between senior and young workers, including Age Management programmes.

The agreement envisages the launch of a multi-stage project, with an initial experimentation in pilot areas: Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Latium. In these regions, ANLA will make its associative experience and the contribution of its volunteers available to foster the creation and strengthening of groups of senior citizens in enterprises.

Through the Protocol, Confindustria undertakes to promote the project among its associative system and to promote awareness of it among the territorial associations and enterprises, monitoring its development in the territory. ANLA, in turn, will accompany the adhering realities in the development of the initiatives, enhancing the role of elderly workers as a point of reference for people still in service and as a bridge between business, territory and community.

Looking ahead, after an initial start-up and consolidation phase of the project, the Protocol also envisages the possibility, in the coming years, of establishing an annual national ANLA-Confindustria award for companies that will have distinguished themselves in the implementation of good practices in the area of age management, intergenerational mentoring and networking with the territory.

For Maurizio Marchesini, Confindustria Vice President for Labour and Industrial Relations, “The Protocol represents for Confindustria an initiative of significant social value, which aims to strengthen the link between business, work and community through the valorisation of the experience of older workers, conveyed by ANLA, in the wake of effective Age Management policies. We are convinced that dialogue and constructive exchange between different generations of workers foster the transfer of skills, reduce the dispersion of knowledge and support the professional growth of young people, with positive effects on productivity. At the same time, the initiative can further improve the corporate climate and strengthen the link between the company and the territory, generating concrete benefits for local communities. Confindustria thus confirms its commitment to a socially sustainable development capable of combining business competitiveness and social cohesion”.

"This protocol represents a unicum with which as the National Association of Elderly Workers we are particularly pleased. First, because in it profit and non-profit meet and it is an important signal with respect to a narrative that represents these opposing worlds while there are essential convergences for the good of the country. Moreover, this protocol puts back at the centre the value of work, which has always been the core of commitment and attention for our Association, which was founded over 70 years ago under the aegis of the major Italian industrial groups. This protocol underlines the new role of the company as a place of social friendship and future building. Through this agreement ANLA, with the establishment of groups of company elders belonging to it, will enable the company internally to achieve greater harmony between the generations, and externally to better root itself in the social fabric of reference, creating increasingly supportive communities”, said the president of ANLA, Edward Patriarch.