Labour, Fincantieri considers microchips

Genoa - In Sweden, Epicenter, a hi-tech company with 700 employees, is experimenting with a microchip to be implanted under its employees’ skin, which will serve as a badge to open doors, to switch on computers and to unlock bicycles at the end of a shift.

In Korea the Daewoo shipyards are designing an exoskeleton that will allow employees to lift loads of up to 100kg. In Italy, the question of hi-tech workers was raised last July by Giuseppe Bono, Fincantieri’s C.E.O., during a hearing at the Regional Council of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. “For us the idea was to put microchips in our workers’ boots to know where they are on the ships: they will fight us over this, but we must do it in the end.” More than just opening doors or switching on PCs, the goal would be to reduce the number of accidents. Has there been an accident on board? The company has the tools to track who is on a ship, and, if injured, how etc... Although their numbers are decreasing, there were 209 accidents at Fincantieri last year. In short, the proposal could be read as a workers’ protection tool, and perhaps a tool to protect the company in court. This month Fincantieri brought the issue up again in its enormous document on the renewal of the collective agreement.

In the chapter entitled, “Safety and the Environment,” in certain situations the company proposed to use, “audiovisual equipment or other technical apparatus, instruments which if coherently targeted could raise the overall level of workplace safety.” The word microchip does not appear, but there is a discussion of the matter. Although the subject is rather marginal in the negotiations, it is further fuel to the fire of the dispute. Yesterday morning in Riva Trigoso the workers went on strike and contemplated further demonstrations this week. The unions describe the chip idea as “a shocking proposal,” seeing it as an attempt to control workers. “If it is for security, they should find other methods,” Tiziano Roncone (FIM CISL) summarised.

From a legislative point of view, article 4 of the Workers’ Statute prevents workers from being checked on remotely, but various judgements from the Cassation Court state that “audiovisual apparatus required for reasons of organisation and production or workers’ safety, but in any case, reasons which offer the possibility of providing remote checks on employees” could be installed with an agreement with the unions or the Labour Inspectorate, and with a signed release from every single worker.