Industrial Relations
Industrial relations has an increasingly important and strategic role for the tanning sector. In fact, the promotion of more inclusive and caring social dialogue and good collective bargaining is one of the key tools for ensuring the continuous improvement of working conditions and workers’ welfare.
Industrial relations, at every level, have long been good and are consolidated by fruitful social dialogue aimed at promoting the competitiveness of the tanning sector and the environmental and social values associated with Italian leather in the various institutional spheres.
The current transformations also require the various groups to adapt their collective bargaining tools to the socioeconomic environment characterised by increasingly complex challenges.
The need for a strong and common commitment to ensure safeguarding health and safety and the minimal impact of activities on the environment, marked by the participation and continuous improvement of Italian tanneries, is shared by sector representations.
The Tannery Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL)
The stipulation of the first CCNL applied to the tanning industry dates back to 23 February1941. To date, thanks to the good labour relations that the parties have successfully strengthened and maintained over the years, 25 renewal agreements have been signed.
The CCNL for tanning industry workers is the cardinal regulatory reference for all companies that apply it and is effective for the entire workforce. It is stipulated with the major sectoral unions FILCTEM-CGIL (Italian Federation of Chemical Textile Energy Manufacturing Workers) , FEMCA- CISL (Federation of Chemical Energy Fashion and Related); UILTEC-UIL (Italian Union of Textile Energy Chemical Workers), and is also signed separately by UGL-CHIMICI.
The latest renewal of the CCNL was signed on 7 March 2024 following intense negotiations in which the parties shared a commitment to dialogue and constructive discussion in order to cohesively address the difficult period.
The renewal not only provides solutions to ensure minimum economic standards for workers, but also promotes social responsibility in the workplace through various improvements.
The renewed collective bargaining agreement has important innovations in the area of flexibility, introducing contractual motives for exceeding 12 months in fixed-term contracts and in the area of part-time contracts.
Regarding contractual welfare, there will be an increase in the monthly contribution related to Sanimoda supplementary health care from 12 to 15 euros starting in 2026. An additional two euros have been allocated for non-self-sufficiency insurance coverage.
For victims of gender-based violence, one month of paid leave is provided at the company’s expense in addition to what is provided by law.
Legal regulations on remote work, marrow donation leave, parental leave, reasonable accommodations, union viability for RLSs (Workers’ Safety Representatives) have been transposed.
On the subject of rights, the regulations for prolonged leave with the extension of job retention in the case of serious diseases has been introduced.
The CCNL regulates the minimum economic and regulatory treatments shared by all workers in the Italian tanning industry.
The collective agreement has the force of law between the parties and applies to the directly stipulating collective parties, as well as ‘individual’ persons belonging to the trade unions of workers and employers (or an individual employer) who stipulated it.
In addition, the contract also applies to those who, although not members of the stipulating trade unions, implicitly or explicitly have adhered to it (e.g., by signing the letter of employment that expressly refers to it).
The CCNL is applicable to all employees of in-house tanning processing stages. For workers employed by third-party companies, the parties may adopt specific solutions. As far as the tanning sector is concerned, the parties declare that the regulations set forth in this CCNL are the only ones applicable, therefore excluding their inclusion, in whole or in part, in other CCNLs stipulated by them or their own representations.
The tannery collective bargaining agreement shall take effect 1 July2023 and its economic terms expire 30 June 2026. The contract, in its entirety, will be understood to be subsequently renewed from year to year unless notice of termination is given six months prior to expiration by registered letter with return receipt. In case of termination it will remain in force until it is replaced by the subsequent contract.
Social Dialogue
European Social Dialogue is one of the social parties’ participatory tools in EU social policy making. Social party organisations are engaged in discussions, consultations, negotiations and joint actions conducted at the European level, complementing actions carried out nationally.
The European tanning sector’s effort to achieve excellence in social and environmental performance is continuous and often also supported by the European Commission, thanks to a series of joint projects under the European Social Dialogue in which UNIC has actively participated.
Green Deal Leather
In September 2022, the two-year project ’’Towards Zero Adverse Impact of the European Leather Industry (Green Deal Leather)’’ was launched, funded by the EU Commission under the European Social Dialogue in the tanning sector. As part of the project, the European representations Cotance and IndustriAll, with the active collaboration of national tanning associations from Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Austria and Hungary, worked to collect data and information (through surveys, statistics and interviews) on two relevant topics in the sector: health and safety in the tannery and the carbon footprint of leather.
The goal of the project was to provide tools for understanding, promotion and improvement, to protect the human and social capital of European tanning and create new job opportunities.
The studies, which can be downloaded here, reveal that:
Between February 2021 and April 2022, along with six other trade associations, UNIC took part in the ERICA (European Repository of the Industry Collective Agreements) project sponsored by the EU and implemented by COTANCE, industriAll-Europe.
The main outcome of the project was the creation of an online archive with a collection of national collective agreements in the European tanning industry.
The tool is useful for benchmarking and improving key elements of national collective bargaining, promoting a better understanding of European social dialogue and facilitating the dissemination of best practices.
The public area, accessible to all without restriction, provides general information on the various collective bargaining agreements, both in the original language and in English, as well as other useful information on Social Dialogue.
The private area, accessible only to project partners, houses a database that enables comparative analysis and provides elements for discussion.
Social and Environmental Report 2020
In February 2019, the European social partners (Cotance and industriAll), kicked off the social dialogue project “Social-Environmental Report for the European Tanning Industry” which was a follow-up to the one already carried out in 2012. The 18-month initiative received support from the European Commission and was implemented with the collaboration of 10 partners.
The project aimed to promote the image of European leather as a modern and sustainable industry.
Indeed, the report takes a snapshot of the social and environmental commitment of European tanning and tracks the environmental and social progress made by the sector since 2012.
Health and Safety Due Diligence
Occupational health and safety protection in the tanning industry is a key priority in the value chain, and social dialogue at the sector level is considered the best-suited tool to define the most appropriate, effective and technically applicable due diligence standards to guide companies in taking advantage of new opportunities, achieving greater competitiveness.
Between 2017 and 2018, the European social partners COTANCE and industriAll worked together on the EU-sponsored social dialogue project ’Due Diligence for Safe Workplaces in the Tanning Industry’ aimed at understanding the maturity and integration levels of occupational health and safety practices in the tanning industry and their communication within the leather value chain.
With the collaboration of seven national partners, a survey was conducted on practices for identifying and reporting problems with occupational health and safety conditions in tanneries along the leather value chain, and the Online Risk Assessment Tool (OiRA) for the tanning industry was updated.
Leather is my job
The ’Leather is my job’ initiative was promoted within the framework of the European Social Dialogue between 2016 and 2017, focusing on the challenges faced by the European tanning sector, with particular reference to the issue of work and its attractiveness among young people; it had the objective of improving and increasing knowledge of the job opportunities offered by the tanning sector.
As part of the project, also supported by UNIC and trade unions, in addition to a photo contest, a brochure was produced containing testimonials from men and women who proudly tell their stories and careers in the tannery, with the aim of inspiring new generations and eradicating preconceptions and prejudices that sometimes surround the tanning industry.