Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Compressor producer Embraco announced the dismissal of 497 out of 537 employees at its site in Riva di Chieri. Redundancies will affect mainly blue-collar workers.
The company is controlled by the Whirlpool group, which has been implementing job cuts in the country (see WhirlpoolIT-2016). The site, producing compressors for fridges, has been reducing its production over the last years, adopting temporary lay-offs and short-time working schemes. Embraco intends to close the plant, keeping only the sale department in Riva di Chieri.
Unions claim the company is pursuing a delocalisation strategy and are holding industrial actions. Over the next weeks, negotiations will be held as part of the collective dismissal procedure. The company subsequently confirmed that production at the Italian plant will be transferred to Slovakia.
Update, 02/03/2018: The Minister of economic development Carlo Calenda announced that an agreement suspending the dismissal of the 497 workers until the end of 2018 was reached between the company and the trade unions on March, 2, 2018. The suspension aims at securing employment until the reindustrialisation plan is fully defined and a new investor for the plant is identified. Trade unions have expressed cautious satisfaction with the agreement.
Eurofound (2018), Embraco, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Italy, factsheet number 92953, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/92953.