Corporate Social Responsibility for workers: Pirelli (1950-1980)

by Ilaria Suffia (Università Cattolica, Milan)

This blog is part of our EHS Annual Conference 2020 Blog Series.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in relation to the workforce has generated extensive academic and public debate. In this paper I evaluate Pirelli’s approach to CSR, by exploring its archives over the period 1950 to 1967.

Pirelli, founded in Milan by Giovanni Battista Pirelli in 1872, introduced industrial welfare for its employees and their family from its inception. In 1950, it deepened its relationship with them by publishing ‘Fatti e Notizie’ [Events and News], the company’s in-house newspaper. The journal was intended to share information with workers, at any level and, above all, it was meant to strengthen relationships within the ‘Pirelli family’.

Pirelli industrial welfare began in the 1870s and, by the end of the decade, a mutual aid fund and some institutions for its employees families (kindergarten and school), were established. Over the next 20 years, the company set the basis of its welfare policy which encompassed three main features: a series of ‘workplace’ protections, including accident and maternity assistance;  ‘family assistance’, including (in addition to kindergarten and school), seasonal care for children and, finally,  commitment to the professional training of its workers.

In the 1920s, the company’s welfare enlarged. In 1926, Pirelli created a health care service for the whole family and, in the same period, sport, culture and ‘free time’ activities became the main pillars of its CSR. Pirelli also provided houses for its workers, best exemplified in 1921, with the ‘Pirelli Village’. After 1945, Pirelli continued its welfare policy. The Company started a new programme of construction of workers’ houses (based on national provision), expanding its Village, and founding a professional training institute, dedicated to Piero Pirelli. The establishment in 1950 of the company journal, ‘Fatti e Notizie’, can be considered part of Pirelli’s welfare activities.

‘Fatti e Notizie’ was designed to improve internal communication about the company, especially Pirelli’s workers.  Subsequently, Pirelli also introduced in-house articles on current news or special pieces on economics, law and politics. My analysis of ‘Fatti e Notizie’ demonstrates that welfare news initially occupied about 80 per cent of coverage, but after the mid-1950s it decreased to 50 per cent in the late 1960s.

The welfare articles indicate that the type of communication depended on subject matter. Thus, health care, news on colleagues, sport and culture were mainly ‘instructive’, reporting information and keeping up to date with events. ‘Official’ communications on subjects such as CEO reports and financial statements, utilised ‘top to bottom’ articles. Cooperation, often reinforced with propaganda language, was promoted for accident prevention and workplace safety. Moreover, this kind of communication was applied to ‘bottom to top’ messages, such as an ‘ideas box’ in which workers presented their suggestions to improve production processes or safety.

My analysis shows that the communication model implemented by Pirelli in the 1950s and 1960s, navigated models of capitulation, (where the managerial view prevails) in the 1950s, to trivialisation (dealing only with ‘neutral’ topics, from the 1960s.

Ilaria Suffia: ilaria.suffia@unicatt.it