Federmeccanica, the organisation representing Italy’s metalworking industry, is challenging the rule allowing employees to transfer employer contributions from industry-wide pension funds to open pension funds or individual pension plans (PIPs), citing an exclusivity clause in the sector’s collective bargaining agreement.
In a note, the organisation cited article 15 of the national collective bargaining agreement, which obliges companies to pay contributions “solely and exclusively” to Cometa, the sector’s pension fund.
Under the agreement, employers are required to pay contributions only while employees remain members of Cometa. Employers are not required to continue paying contributions if an employee decides to transfer their pension position or join an open pension fund or PIP.
Metalworkers’ union Fiom-CGIL also stated that the employer contribution is “inextricably linked to actual, continued participation” in Cometa.
Cometa membership “categorically precludes” the portability of employer contributions to PIPs or open pension funds, according to Fiom-CGIL.
Federmeccanica and the union are responding to financial intermediaries approaching employees in the industry to encourage them to transfer their pension savings from Cometa to PIPs or open pension funds.
Federmeccanica’s position challenges the rule allowing employees to transfer employer contributions, which is due to take effect on 31 October.
The implementation of the provision, included in this year’s budget law, was postponed in July following pressure from pension funds concerned about competition from banks and insurers, as well as from social partners.
In May, Italy’s largest unions – CGIL, CISL and UIL – joined forces with major employers’ associations, including Confindustria, Confcommercio, Confesercenti, and others, to defend employer contributions as “a constituent element of collective bargaining agreements and in industry-wide pension funds (Fondi Negoziali)”.
Santo Biondo, confederal secretary of the Italian Labour Union (UIL), told IPE that collective bargaining agreements cannot be undermined by competition between providers.
“The portability that allows open pension funds to operate within the scope established for industry-wide pension funds constitutes a form of discrimination to the detriment of the collective bargaining process in general, and of Fondi Negoziali in particular”, he said.
