Giorgio Squinzi, the leader of
industrial employers' confederation Confindustria, said Tuesday
employers are ready to negotiate a new collective bargaining
contract with labor.
"Unions said they're ready to sit at the negotiating table
to renew national collective bargaining contracts and so are we,
naturally," he said.
"We never barred unions from negotiations," he said, adding
Confindustria has come up with "some guidelines that need to be
respected during talks".
The two sides deadlocked after Squinzi said last Tuesday
that there was no room for negotiation with unions, describing
their position as "unrealistic".
Confindustria wanted to talk about reforms to the national
collective bargaining system before negotiating the contract
renewals for several sectors, including food, metal and
chemicals workers.
The unions said contract renewals must come first.
The biggest union, the leftwing CGIL, has also accused
Confindustria of wanting to reduce salaries and ditch the
collective bargaining system.
Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti said last week that the
government would intervene if deadlock continued.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
