Among advisers and intermediaries, numerous legal disputes. Moving beyond the agency contract model

Federpromm and Uiltucs are urging the other parties to define an AEC (collective economic agreement) for the entire credit, financial and insurance intermediation sector.

The entire financial intermediation sector is in a state of strong tension because of the various and frequent mergers, integrations and incorporations affecting the whole financial advisory sector, driven by the strong tendency linked to the "rigid" contractual relationships between advisers and authorised entities. A phenomenon - the union note explains - that nationwide involves thousands of disputes, almost all of which have ended up as labour cases, due to the "lack" of clear contractual clauses and institutions and of negotiated regulatory rules.

This is especially true when dismissal for just cause occurs, with the failure to recognise portfolio indemnities, the right to the notice indemnity and non-compete clauses. All these contractual institutions - the union note states - although they refer to provisions of the Civil Code, are not sufficiently clear in defining a balanced and equal employment relationship between the financial adviser and the principal company. These are issues that very often clog up judges’ workloads and could be overcome if there were a clear and shared acceptance of a model of "Collective Economic Agreement (AEC) between employers’ associations of intermediaries and representative trade unions in the sector.

Federpromm and the Uiltucs federation itself (signatory to dozens of national collective labour agreements), together with the Uilca federation in the credit and insurance sector, have repeatedly highlighted the issue, showing that the internal contradictions in the agency-style employment relationship applied to the entire credit and financial intermediation sector can be overcome by proposing a uniform model that clearly frames the "regulatory part", the "professional part" and the "welfare part", but above all the recognition of the "economic entitlements accrued and accruing", including the "bonuses" initially agreed in supplementary letters to the main mandate.

There are many pending disputes involving major companies (from Fideuram to Mediolanum, from Credem to Fineco, from Bnl-BNp Paribas to Mediobanca Premier) for which several financial advisers have sought trade union and legal assistance from Federpromm. To overcome and address these discrepancies and inequalities in working conditions, in the interest of giving greater stability to the entire financial intermediation sector - the union note concludes - it is now more necessary than ever to open a discussion table with the support of the institutions, bringing together the organisations representing authorised entities and the trade unions representing professional operators such as financial advisers and credit financial agents.