The Piaggio Group acknowledges the role of trade union organisations and workers' representatives and is committed to establishing relations with them focused on attention, engagement and a common understanding; in fact ongoing dialogue is considered as fundamental for finding the best solutions to specific company needs.
The Group’s approach lies in involving workers and their representatives in the pursuit of company objectives, establishing a continuous dialogue with them. The solutions and conduct adopted in various countries where the Group operates are in line with the social and institutional context, but are always consistent with the fundamental principles and overall needs of the Group.
Piaggio complies with the labour legislation of countries where it operates.
All employees working at the Group's production companies have 100% salary and welfare cover, in accordance with law and collective bargaining agreements.
Italy
During 2022, dialogue and discussion with trade unions and workers’ representatives continued with the aim of seeking shared solutions in an international scenario characterised by new international geopolitical tensions and interlinked unpredictable factors such as soaring gas and oil prices, economic sanctions against belligerent countries and blockades imposed by supplier countries to counter new pandemic outbreaks with negative consequences on the supply of production systems in terms of rising costs and the unavailability of raw materials.
Nevertheless, the positive performance of the reference markets led to the signing of a trade union agreement at the end of November 2021, which initiated a fixed-term recruitment plan to strengthen the workforce of the Group’s plants in Pontedera (Pisa), Mandello del Lario (Lecco) and Scorzè (Venice) as early on as the first quarter of 2022.
The “provisional” agreements signed in 2021 with the trade unions for the Pontedera and Mandello del Lario sites led to workers who have already had experience at Piaggio over the last few years to being hired, to avoid wasting skills acquired and at the same time allow for a more effective response to changing market trends. Under the agreements, some 50 people had their contracts changed to a permanent status for the Pontedera site in March 2022, and vertical part-timers and a part of staff leasing staff 59 for the Mandello del Lario production site were stabilised.
In keeping with actions taken at the end of 2021 and with the need to take all useful measures to increase the company’s competitiveness and at the same time respond to temporary market needs, in December 2022, the Company signed “provisional” trade union agreements at the three Italian production sites of Pontedera (Pisa), Mandello del Lario (Lecco) and Scorzè (Venice), that will allow, within the scope of the recruitment plan planned for 2023, to waive the constraints of current legislation on flexible forms of work.
As far as the COVID-19 health crisis is concerned, shared monitoring continued with the trade union representatives and workers’ representatives (RLS), within the framework of the company’s Control Committees, set up at individual sites, to verify the application of rules to combat and contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the workplace.
These Committees were attended by the company trade union representatives and workers’ safety representatives (RLS).
With reference to collective bargaining, the National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL) for workers in the private metalworking and plant installation sectors was confirmed as valid throughout Italy.
For the Scorzè site, it was necessary to resort to the Ordinary Temporary Layoff Benefits Fund (Cassa Integrazione Guadagni Ordinaria) mainly in the period from September 2022 to December 2022.
The number of hours lost due to strikes in 2022 shows a trend in line with the previous year between hours lost due to company microconflicts and hours lost due to general/category strikes.
However, It should be noted that micro-conflicts do not account for significant values in absolute terms and are limited exclusively to initiatives by a minority of trade union representatives.
All corporate micro-conflict events referred to the Pontedera site.
The table below provides a summary of the hours lost due to strikes in the last three years at the company’s sites in Italy:
A structured company welfare system has been established in Italy, with services that aim to increase the well-being of employees and their families, in economic and social terms.
In general, a supplementary health care fund (Métasalute) for the engineering sector has been in place since the end of 2011, based on a national trade union agreement. Membership of the plan has been automatic for all Group employees since October 2017.
The scheme also includes health benefits/services for employees:
- at Pontedera, the company medical centre for employees has specialists (an optician, an orthopaedic specialist, a lung specialist, a dermatologist and an ENT specialist) for consultations;
- at Noale/Scorzè and Mandello del Lario paid leave is provided for all employees for specialist visits outside the Company and for clinical analysis, as well medical test/examination monitoring.
- All sites also offer employees flu vaccinations free of charge.
1 Staff leasing means provision for an indefinite period
2 For the calculation of the %, only the hours of production staff were considered.
India
In India, trade unions have a two-tier structure: one at company level and the other at local/area level; this structure is also replicated at the Indian subsidiary, where the trade union system comprises a company trade union committee with Piaggio worker representatives, and a central trade union committee, which is the highest hierarchical level, with members selected by the trade union. The company union committee consists of 5 members elected annually by the workers.
At the Indian subsidiary, following bilateral discussions with trade union representatives, a new collective company agreement was signed on 21 December 2022, which will enter into force on 1 January 2023 and will be valid for four years.
In 2022, a considerable effort was required to adapt production to the complex and changing scenario with a view to production flexibility, also taking into account the gradual changes made to anti-Covid measures. This effort was facilitated by constructive dialogue with trade union representatives. In this regard, there were no strikes in 2022.
In 2022, further initiatives were taken to ensure, in addition to full compliance with labour legislation, ongoing collaboration with workers and trade unions and the involvement of workers, with a view to improving employee satisfaction and consequently their motivation. In line with this approach, Piaggio has carried out numerous activities including: the distribution of the anti-COVID vaccine, various initiatives for disease control and prevention, awareness-raising on health and safety issues, the purchase of books and uniforms for employees’ children.
Vietnam
In Vietnam, trade union representatives at a company level (selected by a company trade union committee) are tasked with protecting employees, helping them to understand aspects concerning labour regulations and company policies, and providing economic support for some company initiatives benefiting employees.
In particular, the current Trade Union Committee, elected in February 2019 and comprising 15 members, made an excellent contribution in 2022, having sponsored and assisted the company in a number of initiatives to bolster employee motivation.
In the first part of 2022, considering the changing state of the COVID-19 pandemic, initiatives focused on prevention and reducing contagion, while in the second half of the year, events were also started up again to support employee motivation (e.g. the misentobenepiaggiolympics2022 event to raise awareness of the importance of physical health).
No strikes took place in 2022.