On 6 April 2020, ENEL Italia signed an agreement with the trade union organizations from the electricity sector to establish a “holiday bank” system, which avoids to recourse to short time work schemes, unemployment benefits, or other income relief measures funded by the State. The agreement allows for an innovative use of holidays on a solidarity basis. For periods of inactivity, the employees concerned will be granted paid leave, which will be compensated with working time at the resumption of activities. To reduce the number of hours compensated, all employees may donate their holidays to other employees who were granted paid leave. At the outset the company contributed 30,000 days of “holidays” to this fund. In addition, part of this period of inactivity will be employed for training and considered as worked.

President of Enel, Patrizia Grieco, commented that “the concrete application of the values of solidarity and responsibility in a particularly difficult moment for the country, guaranteeing a solution with which everyone, within the company, they can do their part”.

Iren, another company from the energy sector, signed a similar agreement with the trade unions establishing a “solidarity holidays fund” allowing employees to donate up to five days of their holidays to colleagues who no longer have available days off. The company will then contribute twice the number of days collected.