Indesit Company’s management met on Monday with government and the trade unions at the Ministry of Economic Development to verify the feasibility of an agreement over the reorganisation plan designed to deliver improved competitiveness.
In addition to the changes already made to the plan in previous meetings, Indesit decided to concede to further requests from the regions, bringing the plan for extra investments in Italy to €83M, higher production levels and more valued added production in the three Italian facilities and a gradual re-absorption of the workers were involved thanks to the benefits expected from the investments and the foreseeable recovery of the market.
After a night of talks however, Indesit management was forced to face the possibility of being unable to reach an agreement with the trade unions.
Given the importance of the plan for the Company’s competitiveness in the medium to long term, after over five months of seeking constructive dialogue and faced with a new “No” from the unions, Indesit has no choice but to implement the plan unilaterally.
The failure to find an agreement prevents access to shock-absorbing welfare resources and penalises the workers by triggering the initiation of mobility procedures.
The plan under discussion envisaged the facility at Fabriano (AN) becoming the exclusive production centre for high innovation built-in ovens whilst also producing those now made in Poland, small ovens currently being made in Spain and special products.
The Comunanza plant was to have become the centre of innovation and production for high-end front-loading washing machines with the Caserta facility was to be the exclusive centre for the production of built-in fridges with high innovation content (also producing those now made in Turkey) and built-in gas hobs (including those originally scheduled for production in Poland).
In addition to the consolidation in Italy of the already existing higher value added production, new production would thus have been transferred to the Italian sites from Poland, Spain and Turkey. Where Italian low-end production was deemed to be no longer sustainable it would be relocated to the countries with more favourable costs, mainly to be moved to Eastern Europe.
The plan also provided for the use of shock absorbers (redundancy pay and solidarity contracts) to be able to reorganise production (timings varying from site to site) and protect the people involved as well as possible and without losing valuable experience and knowledge in view of the benefits expected from the investments and the anticipated recovery of the market in general.
Indesit had agreed not to unilaterally start mobility procedures but it is looking as if it will do so if an agreement with the unions cannot be reached.
Of course Indesit’s leading brand in the UK is Hotpoint but they do also sell under Creda, Indesit and Cannon.