Industrial relations GRI - G4: 11

National collective labour agreements (CCNL) apply to all Snam workers (the Energy and Petroleum Industry Agreement for the transportation, storage and regasification segments, and the Gas and Water Agreement for distribution).

Snam guarantees all workers the right to freely express their thoughts, join associations and engage in union activities. At the end of 2014, 49.5% of employees were members of a trade union.

Special meeting spaces are provided for conducting union activities, and workers can benefit from dedicated leave, as provided for by current regulations and the applicable industry agreement.

All workers can submit topics of interest to them to the unitary union representative bodies (RSU), which are periodically replaced through elections.

At the national and local level, Snam’s relationship with trade unions was reflected in numerous discussions: in 2014, 130 meetings were held with trade unions.

Negotiations have favoured the use of a participatory model at all levels as agreed in the new Industrial Relations Protocol signed by the parties on 17 October 2013. In fact, this agreement is the benchmark instrument for strengthening a relation-based model that will enable the development of other tools to promote a participatory culture among workers.

In keeping with the rationale underlying industrial relations aimed at enhancing second-level contracts, the parties worked out the framework of the participation bonus for the three-year period 2014-2016 for all Group companies. The aim of the negotiations, which involved trade unions at all levels, was to establish a relationship between salary components and the competitive features of the company’s system in order to establish models to redistribute income.

In 2014, discussions also continued on the agreements set out in the Employment Protocol signed in October 2013. In January 2014, the agreement on layoffs was signed for all Group companies pursuant to Articles 4 and 24 of Law 223/91. In the context of improving discussion among the parties, it was also decided to establish a Verification and Control Committee on Group layoffs made up of representatives from Snam’s Industrial Relations department, the national secretariats of the energy, petroleum and gas/water sectors and from union representative bodies (RSU) and regional union entities. The Committee has met periodically over the entire duration of the layoff procedure to monitor the application of the policy and the agreements signed, and especially the implementation of the employment plan specified in the above Protocol. To be specific, a plan is being established for the hiring of resources in the various operating units of the Group as a function of departing employees resulting from the layoff procedure.