The outlook. 15,000 company-level contracts have been recorded in the area – Stirpe: the review of contract models is an ongoing process; the North-East as a testing ground for industrial relations
95.3 per cent of business owners and 91.9 per cent of employees believe that a company also brings value to the community. The findings of the Community Media Research survey, presented by scientific director Daniele Marini, form the backdrop to the discussion: ‘Business and work are categories with blurred boundaries: all the more so in a society where 60 per cent of employees have both the opportunity and the desire to set up their own business,’ emphasises Marini. ‘Work, as a shared value and a factor in social advancement, has created prosperity and fuelled the development of the North-East, but now that the landscape has changed, a new paradigm is needed in relations between businesses and workers.” Here, where 15,000 company-level agreements have been recorded (the third-highest figure in Italy: covering around 30 per cent of employees, though the target is 60 per cent), industrial relations can move beyond conflict and become a factor in competitiveness: ‘Fully aware,’ says Giuliano Poletti, Minister for Labour, ‘that work is facing an epoch-making change, we must be ready to manage it.’
