Thread by @valeriodeste

Important thread about the national collective agreement signed between food delivery platforms in Italy with a minority union with scarce representativeness to deprive workers of statutory protection. More to follow also later

https://twitter.com/Ari_Tassinari/status/1306263057027473408

More info on the collective agreement for food-delivery platform work in Italy, with interesting insights and comments gathered by @Melissahei and @paola_tamma for @POLITICOEurope politico.eu/article/delive…

A few explicatory comments. Italy does not have a legal measurement for representativeness. Any collective agreement is valid if it is not signed by a sham union. Nonetheless the law can give special effects to those agreements signed by the most representative social partners

In this case the law authorizes à collective agreement signed by the most representative social partners to derogate from the law when regulating the conditions of platform workers and other workers in the grey zone between employment and self-employment

The agreement reached by Assodelivery and the UGL union hardly meets the standards to be considered most representative. Assodelivery is a brand new association only covering platforms and whose personnel comes straight out of platforms’ management, but also... 👇🏼

UGL cannot be considered a most representative union in this sector. They were never present in past negotiations, including the ones promoted by the ministry of labour... 👇🏼

Moreover, UGL is historically tied to the far right, as the article explains. Its representativeness in a sector where the vast bulk of workers are migrant workers is more than questionable... 👇🏼

I defined this a “pirate” collective agreement. This is how Italian legal and industrial relations experts define those agreements that are signed by non-representative social partners and derogate unfavorably from other CBAs or the law. “Pirate” doesn’t have “moral” connotations

This CBA is likely going to be challenged by the most repr unions, which reacted very harshly against it. The platforms knew that it would be challenged but went on. They have something to show as their “best practice” to policymakers, also at the EU level cisl.it/notizie/comuni…

So, the platforms are using an historical weakness of ITA industrial relation system, ie the lack of a clear measurement for representativeness, to their advantage. Coupled with the existing laws allowing CBAs to regulate platform work, this weakness will decrease legal certainty