Framework agreement signed with Italian multinational

ITALY/GLOBAL: Italy's three national metalworkers' unions - the FIM, FIOM and UILM, also representing the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) - signed an international framework agreement with Merloni Elettrodomestici S.p.A. on December 17, 2001, in Rome. This agreement is not only the first of its kind signed by an Italian multinational company, but also the first for the IMF and the metalworking industry worldwide.
With its signature, Merloni Elettrodomestici, Europe's third largest producer of domestic appliances, with subsidiaries across the globe, has undertaken to comply with and promote the fundamental principles and rights at work established in conventions of the International Labour Organisation, including:

• freedom of association and the right to organise and bargain collectively;
  
• eradication of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
  
• abolition of child labour;
  
• elimination of workplace discrimination.
  

The agreement provides for the establishment of monitoring not only of the company's own production units and activities, but its suppliers as well, which risk having their contracts cancelled in cases of grave violations. The company must report on the implementation and status of the agreement at the annual meeting of the European Works Council (EWC) and at the national information meeting provided for by the national collective contract. For countries which are not members of the EWC, representatives of the workers and trade unions at individual plants must receive this information from the local management.
The agreement also states the principle that profits must be accompanied by the wellbeing of the communities in which Merloni Elettrodomestici companies are operating.