There is a one-off contribution or a donation in the pay slip. For some, even an additional month’s salary. And then the vouchers for the purchase of fuel and the fringe benefits that gained momentum after the Government raised the tax exemption threshold to 600 euros in the Aid bis decree. Measures to support the income of employees take different forms and enter with increasing force in the reflections – and in the budgets – that almost one in two human resources director does to help workers, now that inflation is approaching 9%. If on the one hand the renewals of the national collective labor agreements of the last period are making it possible to recover purchasing power, on the other hand it is impossible not to point out that they mainly concern the industry where today almost all contracts are renewed. However, there is a large part of the tertiary contracts, from trade to tourism, which have expired for several years now.
The orientation of the chiefs of staff
In this context, the companies that take the field to support the income of their workers are multiplying and the personnel managers themselves confirm that this will be a rather widespread orientation in the future. Aidp, which on 7 and 8 October will hold the 51st national congress in Bologna, at the Fico congress center, has sounded 614, through its Research Center, led by Professor Umberto Frigelli. From the answers it turns out that 13% of companies have already decided on support measures and 47% are considering which activities to start. Approximately 30%, on the other hand, do not envisage support measures. Among the measures identified, 44% of managers say they have strengthened the already existing corporate welfare tools, while 37% have directly focused on more direct measures such as fringe benefits and bonus bills up to the ceiling of 600 euros. 29% of companies, on the other hand, have foreseen stable salary increases in a percentage ranging from 3% to over 7%. The most important percentage of wage increases is in the range of 3 to 5 percent +. For those who have not provided for employee income support measures, the main reason is budgetary constraints and negative turnover dynamics. Compared to the current energy crisis, 69% of personnel managers stated that this will not affect any staff reductions, but there is a 12% who consider this eventuality real and very probable. In the decisions of extraordinary income support measures, one does not always pass by the union. For 40% of the companies it was in fact unilateral decisions and without the involvement of the workers’ representatives.
Corporate initiatives
So if Nordmeccanica, a Piacenza-based company that produces packaging, in recent days the board of directors approved a new fuel bonus of 500 euros for all 250 workers, to Intrum, a credit service company and asset manager with a 49% stake. by Intesa Sanpaolo, an extraordinary per capita bonus of 600 euros will be distributed to employees, which can be spent on the corporate welfare platform where they can directly purchase goods and services. Going back a few weeks, the board of directors of Intesa Sanpaolo, last summer, resolved to make an extraordinary payment of 500 euros, as a donation, to the people of the group in Italy and abroad. Acqua Sant’Anna has provided for an additional monthly payment, while, in Bergamo, Brembo, as well as the Radici group, have paid a one-off contribution of one thousand euros. Labomar, a nutraceutical company in the province of Treviso, has given a bonus of 700 euros to help its collaborators deal with the increases in recent months, from household expenses to fuel.
Towards new paradigms: the Aidp congress
«The current economic situation and international crisis has evident repercussions on the production system, on work and on the cost of living of the people and workers of our country – explains Matilde Marandola, national president of Aidp -. For these reasons it is necessary to use all the forces and energies to counter it. In this sense, companies and human resources management can also play an important role as evidenced by the results of our survey. Priorities must be redefined and a new social pact that also includes the relationship between the individual and the company and that considers the person in his or her uniqueness ». This will also be discussed at the Aidp National Congress which was entitled “Towards new paradigms: inclusion, digital, sustainability and hybrid organizations”. It will be two days of comparisons, talks, insights that will see Carlo Cottarelli, Pier Luigi Celli and Michele Tiraboschi among the speakers, but outsiders in the sector such as Admiral Giuseppe Abbamonte and the former technical director of the national open water swimming team, Massimo Giuliani who will bring their contribution to an audience of over 800 personnel managers.