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TIM's (under Vivendi control) new strategic plan is set to put many jobs on the line both internally and externally (sub-contractors). TIM informed the SLC-Cgil, FISTEL-Cisl and Uilcom-Uil unions of its plan to shed 6,500 jobs on structural grounds (comprising 4,000 on early retirement and 2,500 voluntary departures) that will be combined with a 'solidarity' program, which involves a 20 minute reduction in daily working time for all employees in TIM as well as the simultaneous hiring of 2,000 young workers. However since the latest meeting on 13 March, negotiations have ground to a standstill and in the absence of an agreement TIM has announced its intention to unilaterally proceed with recourse to the Cassa Integrazione Straordinaria (Italy's restructuring fund). Unions are withholding their agreement due to uncertainty surrounding the future of the TIM group due to the current standoff between two TIM shareholders, namely activist fund Elliott and the French group Vivendi, and which should be clarified at the TIM AGM on 24 April. Alongside this the Fim-Cisl, Fiom-Cgil and Uilm unions have called for a four-hour strike on 19 March in protest at the TIM's decision both to re-absorb some of the telephone equipment services business it had previously outsourced as well as to lower its sub-contracting rates by 10%-20%. Unions argue this threatens the telecommunications equipment sector, which employs some 15,000 either directly or indirectly. Unions fear a possible wave of mass layoffs and a worsening of working conditions for the whole sector.
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