How an Italian trade union won AI protections for call center workers

In March 2025, Konecta Italia, a business process outsourcing company, signed Italy’s first company-level AI agreement with SLC-CGIL (Sindacato Lavoratori della Comunicazione, or the Communication Workers’ Union), an Italian communications union that represents roughly 7,000 employees. The agreement broke new ground in a country whose labor policy environment, including sector-level bargaining and laws mandating negotiation over new technology tools, gave unions meaningful leverage at the table.

To understand how the deal came together, PAI spoke with senior representatives from SLC-CGIL. Their account reveals both the promise and the limits of negotiating AI protections in the workplace. While unions can win real safeguards against surveillance, the long-term risks of generative AI, particularly around data use and job loss, remain harder to guard against.

• Key Insight No. 1: Preexisting protections for workers provided leverage for new demands.
• Key Insight No. 2: Unions can try to address short-term surveillance by safeguarding workers as data is collected for AI training and, to some extent, address fears of long-term job loss.
• Key Insight No. 3: Defining AI as a tool, not a replacement, establishes a foundation for addressing risks of worker displacement.
• Key Insight No. 4: Even if unions cannot effectively stop the introduction of AI, they can make sure they are part of the governance process.

Download the full case study to explore how Italy’s first company-level AI agreement was made, what it covers, and the factors that made it possible.