Metro Cash & Carry firm-level agreement, which was agreed by management and workers’ representatives of the Italian stores, establishes a so-called “positive action committee” which is tasked with proposing initiatives and solutions for promoting diversity and inclusion, also through a company project called ‘inclusion and diversity’, and monitoring the actions of the company’s active ageing project designed to support the activities and the potential of employees over the age of 55. Precisely, the positive action committee should promote training programmes to close the technological skills gap of older workers, as well as to design and implement mentoring and reverse mentoring programmes among the older and younger workforce. The agreement also states that, within the scope of the discipline regarding Sunday opening, workers who fall into any of the following categories are not obliged to work: mothers or fathers with children under the age of six; workers certified as carers for people with disabilities or people who are not self-sufficient; workers with disabilities. Most of the workforce that benefited from this provision are older workers. This was reported as a good example of how cooperative industrial relations can result in good measures to promote active ageing at company level.
