There will be up to a maximum of 5,200 Acciaierie d’Italia employees under temporary layoffs who will be laid off on a rotational basis. The company itself announced the news, explaining that the measure will affect all of the company’s sites and that today, Thursday 20 June, it sent the request for joint examination for the launch of the new extraordinary redundancy fund (cigs) provided for companies in extraordinary administration. Request which was sent to the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies and to that of Enterprise and Made in Italy as well as to the unitary trade union representatives and trade union organisations.
Of the 5,200 employees, 4,400 are from the former Ilva plant in Taranto out of a total workforce of 8,025 units as of 31 May 2024. The remaining 800 concern the other factories of the group: 25 in Racconigi, 20 in Legnaro, 245 in Novi Ligure, 40 in Marghera, 400 in Genoa, 50 in Milan, 20 in Paderno.
As far as Taranto is concerned, specifically, 1,270 people from the Fusion Area will go into extraordinary earnings redundancy pay (159 employees/managers, 190 intermediates, 921 workers); 1,276 in the Rolling Area (168 office workers/managers, 66 intermediates, 1,042 workers); 1,854 in the Services and Staff Area (473 employees/managers, 176 intermediates, 1,205 workers). The CIGS will have a duration commensurate with the management of the extraordinary commissioners.
“The use of the Cigs, which will hinge on transparent criteria of strong staff rotation – explains Acciaierie d’Italia in a note -, will be closely connected to the production levels of the plants and will allow the restart plan to be completed with the activation after the summer of the second blast furnace. The Company, aware that it requires a strong sacrifice from its people – concludes the note -, wants to continue to invest in a responsible industrial relations model capable of accompanying this important phase of change”.
Acciaierie d’Italia, Palombella (Uilm): “Last act tragedy, never complicit in the closure”
The reaction of the unions was not long in coming. Rocco Palombella, general secretary of Uilm, doesn’t agree. “We return to the sender – he says forcefully – the request for extraordinary layoffs for the workers of Acciaierie d’Italia. We have never seen a redundancy fund not linked to an industrial plan, which we are still waiting for, but to the duration of the commissionership. It is absurd – he adds – to go from a request for redundancy payments for 3,000 people to a request for 5,200, therefore from 30% to over 50% of workers. In Taranto almost 60% of workers will be on redundancy pay, there will be more workers at home than in the factory, it is intolerable”. Not only that, because Palombella wonders how it could be possible to “reconcile the sale of Acciaierie d’Italia with all this? What does the Government put on the market, the redundancy fund or a credible industrial plan with the right investments? As far as we are concerned – he concludes – we immediately ask for a convocation of the permanent table opened at Palazzo Chigi with the presence of President Meloni”.
Acciaierie d’Italia, D’Alò (Fim Cisl): “A comparison is needed immediately on the cigs numbers”
For Valerio D’Alò, Fim Cisl national secretary, the layoff procedure was expected but it is on the numbers that it is necessary as soon as possible “to start a discussion with the union, because we have already given both the company and the Government some essential needs for us starting – says D’Alò – from shifts that respect laws and contracts, as well as the safeguarding and protection of the plants and many of the other production needs that must be discussed with us. We will not allow – concludes the Fim secretary – the redundancy fund to be managed in the same style and method as Morselli’s management and as Fim we will do everything to ensure that workers can be granted a greater possible compensation than the redundancy fund. We will start – concludes D’Alò – the discussion as soon as possible and we will be ready to discuss every detail of the procedure”.
Acciaierie d’Italia, Hon. Pagano (Pd): “Urso did not respect any commitment”
The Honourable’s comment is caustic. Ubaldo Pagano of the Democratic Party. “So far – states the parliamentarian – Minister Urso has not managed to respect even one of the many promises made: from the industrial plan to new buyers, from reclamation to the improvement of employment and factory conditions, from decarbonisation to the settlement of debts with related industries . What we are facing – concludes Pagaano – is the demonstration of a total lack of vision and strategy. The future of the steelworks seems to be entrusted to chance and unfortunately once again the workers and the community of Taranto are paying the price.”
