22 July, 2016The ENEL Global Works Council met in Rome in July 2016 to raise issues from ENEL sites around the world, and develop the renewal of the global framework agreement which will expire.
The Global Works Council of the Italian energy multinational ENEL held its annual meeting in Rome in July 2016, with representatives of management and unions from ENEL operations around the world. One of the items on the agenda was the renewal of the (GFA). The GFA was signed in June of 2013 between ENEL, IndustriALL Global Union and Public Services International (PSI). The agreement was valid for three years, and both global unions seek further improvement in GFA implementation through the renewal process.
The renewal of the European Works Council Agreement between the company and the European Federations, IndustriAll Europe and EPSU, was also on the agenda, and management and European worker representatives negotiated and agreed a new one.
Over the course of the three day meeting, union representatives raised issues that need to be resolved by the GFA to be renewed, many of them experienced by affiliates in Latin America. This includes some cases over agreed outputs at an operation in Chile, and a case in Peru where the union is seeking compensation for the family of a worker who lost his life at work three years ago. In Colombia, maintenance work has been subcontracted, and in Argentina, white collar workers are excluded from collective bargaining.
Diana Junquera Curiel, IndustriALL energy director, said:
“It is very important to have this agreement, which we believe is the best mechanism for ensuring fairness across all ENEL workplaces. Now it is time to renew and make further steps.”
“The renewed agreement should certainly be more effective, and we need to ensure complete implementation everywhere in the world that ENEL operates.”
ENEL management has committed to move forward the renewal process as soon as possible.
Ahead of the meeting in Rome, the ENEL Latin American regional union network met in Buenos Aires in April 2016, to prepare. This was the second meeting of the union network, after a previous meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2014. It was attended by affiliates to IndustriALL Global Union and PSI from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama and Peru.
The Latin American meeting set out to develop a mechanism to ensure compliance with the GFA and to establish a system of rotation for participating in meetings so that all Latin America affiliates are represented. The meeting sought to establish a system for the network, with continuous communication between unions and workers for the effective implementation of the Agreement.
During the meeting the affiliates spoke about issues in each country and chose Sintraelecol from Colombia and APSEE from Argentina as representatives to the Global Works Council.