The working conditions that Siemens wishes to apply in the new Healthcare company to the employees of the Healthcare Division of Siemens Italy (“HC employees”) are worse than their current working conditions. The employees will act against this questionable approach for the carve out of the Siemens Healthcare Division and go on strike on June 30th.
HC employees expressed their judgment at assemblies held in Milan, Padova and Rome by voting against the company proposal. The reason is simple enough: the change from the Metal to the Chemistry collective bargaining agreement and the application of the current DX employer/works council agreements would entail negative consequences for the HC employees regarding both acquired rights as well as the remuneration of their work.
WORSENING OF EMPLOYEES’ RIGHTS
- worsening of the current flexibility in the work hours (from the current 6 hours to 7 hours of mandatory daily presence in the office)
- loss of 12 hours of permits for more than 80% of the HC employees
- worsening of the current permits for medical visits: maximum of 16 hours per year instead of a maximum of 4 hours/visit without limitation on the number of visits per year
- loss of one vacation day for all HC employees that will reach 18 years seniority in Siemens Healthcare after September 2015
- loss of the paid study permits
- loss of one extra day for blood donors
- last but not least, loss of the current Siemens agreement regarding employees' representation rights (with 50% net reduction in paid permits for employees’ representatives)
WORSENING OF EMPLOYEES’ REMUNERATION
- loss of the “length of service” bonus that should be applied within a short time after the change to the Chemistry collective bargaining agreement (that does not foresee such bonus)
- loss of 30% of the payment for technical business trips and travel time outside the normal work hours
- loss of more than 40% of the payment for the HC employees that will not have the right to paid overtime after the change to the Chemistry collective bargaining agreement (these money losses are calculated including the economic compensation that the company management is willing to offer to the HC employees)
- loss of the lunch reimbursement for HC employees who are home-based and have no access to the company canteen
- reduction of the reimbursement for HC home-based employees who provide their private space to store company equipments and work gears
Moreover, the re-classification of employees to the different levels defined in the Chemistry collective bargaining agreement is still unclear and also the future of all branch offices is still unknown.
It is true that there are some positive effects in the transfer of the HC employees to the new company:
- HC employees will gain 3 additional vacation days after reaching 10 years of seniority. But: this applies to less than 20% of the total HC employees.
- the DX car policy will be more convenient than the current one. But: the effects will be seen in 3-4 years, as all HC employees will continue to bear the current costs until their leasing contracts expire.
- the complementary pension scheme (included in the Chemistry collective agreement) is better (and more expensive for Siemens). But: not all HC employees will subscribe the complementary pension scheme.
In summary, it is clear that the worsening of the working conditions and the economic losses for the HC employees are NOT compensated at all by the few advantages to be gained in the new company. It seems that the company, despite an increase in the expenses for the complementary pension scheme, would obtain overall a net saving in the total labor cost.
The employees’ representatives of Siemens SpA – Healthcare Division think that it is unacceptable that the company tries to implement a cost saving program during the process of transferring rules and working conditions of its HC employees to the DX company. Unfortunately the company representatives did not want to disclose information about the overall costs of the transfer to the DX company. We strongly believe that such transfer process should be managed with full transparency and without losses for the HC employees.
In their last meeting with the company representatives on June 24th, their requests were rejected and the company representatives stated that a bargaining agreement is possible only if the HC employees accept the conditions proposed by the company. To contrast this attitude and to show the HC employees’ strong interest for reaching a good bargaining agreement without penalization and worsening of their working conditions, the employees’ representatives have proclaimed a strike of 24 hours (3 days) for all HC employees.
The first day of this strike will be Tuesday, June 30th, with public assemblies starting at 10:30am at the entrance of Siemens in Milan and Rome. The HC employees will discuss and decide together how to continue the protest in the following days.