The metalworkers offered a platform for renewing the national contract, which ends at the end of June. The intermediate level requires a €280 monthly rise, an increase in so-called flexible benefits, and an additional €48 per year in employer payments to the health-care fund. In terms of working hours, the platform intends to undertake an experimental phase with the goal of gradually reducing working hours to 35 per week (from the present 40, 37.5 for shift workers). Following significant deliberation, the trade unions agreed to define the program uniformly. It remains to be seen how Federmeccanica's industrialists will respond to the platform.
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