It is open confrontation between the Government e Almaviva Contact, following the announcement by the company active in call center management of its intention to close the offices in Rome and Naples and make more than 2500 workers redundant. An announcement to which the Government, through the Deputy Minister for Economic Development Teresa Bellanova, he replied with a halt and an appeal for responsibility.
"I ask you not to go ahead - said the deputy minister - on a dead end road, the result of announcements that appear like a real provocation while a delicate confrontation on several fronts is underway. Bring the discussion back to the discussion tables in charge, leave unnecessary and harmful aside blackmailing acts and we return to common sense and the responsibility with which instead all the parties must work for a shared and non-traumatic solution".
The corporate reorganization plan of Almaviva Contact provides for the cutting of 2.511 Guests between the offices in Rome (1.666 people) and Naples (845 people). The government's harsh reaction must also be seen in the light of theagreement reached a few months ago - precisely on May 31st - between Mise, trade unions and the company to avert 3.000 layoffs, putting in place a range of social safety nets.
After that agreement, the ministry and Almaviva should have carried out a monthly check of the production and employment situation of the call center company at the institutional level. But the persistence of Prevention reported by the company, equal to 1,2 million euros on monthly revenues of 2,3 million euros in the period following the agreement, have led in another direction.
Furthermore, in recent days, the company had held meetings in Palermo with the trade unions on collective transfers of personnel from the Sicilian capital Palermo to Rende, in Calabria, transfers considered by the unions as "disguised redundancies". A problem for which a meeting between the social partners at the Ministry of Economic Development had been set for 12 October, but the picture, in the light of the latest developments, is now profoundly different. These are 400 people destined to move according to company programs that have been confirmed.
The company points the finger at "the unions' refusal to sign the specific agreement on the management of quality and individual productivity", underlining the serious crisis in the sector with "at least ten companies closed in recent months" also due to the "many businesses relocated to non-EU countries".
For the unions it is a company decision "unholy, clearly in violation of the agreement" of last spring. "The reasons given by the company are clearly specious and instrumental: the absolute inconsistency of the alleged trade union defaults is evident as the cause of the company's unscrupulous determination", writes Massimo Cestaro, general secretary of Slc Cgil, in a note. Harsh tones and in line with the government's position.
