Confindustria 'ready to resume talks'

(ANSA) - Pavia, October 13 - 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.