Whirlpool said it expects to cut roughly 480 full-time positions at four administrative facilities in Italy as part of the integration of Indesit that Whirlpool acquired last year.
The axe falls on these positions in addition to the already planned 1,350 redundancies it announced in April. The bulk of these positions are said to hit the poorer south of the country, where unemployment remains high.
Whirlpool said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that some of the positions had been targeted for elimination before the December takeover of the Italian company that sells appliances under its name and the Hotpoint and Scholtes brands.
Industry Minister Federica Guidi said she was disappointed by the outcome of the talks and the redundancy plans outweighed the benefit of €500 million Whirlpool pledged to invest in Italy, and the company’s plans to move some production to Italy from abroad.
The government is said to be willing to bring the parties together for further negotiations, but only once the company has presented “credible and tangible” proposals that give guarantees to workers, Guidi said in a statement.
Gianluca Ficco, leader of the UILM trade union for the sector, said the total redundancies could come to more than 2,000 people out of Whirlpool’s current staff of 6,700 in Italy.
The plan envisages the closure of two Italian plants, one of which, in the southern region of Caserta, employs 815 people. Staff at the Caserta factory plan to go on strike on Friday.
Whirlpool says the cuts announced on Wednesday are necessary because its acquisition of Indesit doubled its administrative staff. All the job cuts are due to be carried out by 2018.
It is reported that Whirlpool expects to post restructuring-related charges of roughly €106 million through 2018 related to the job cuts.
Whirlpool said it expects the latest restructuring related expenses will fall within its previously reported estimate for restructuring charges of as much as $300 million for the current year.
Last month, the company reported a first-quarter profit that missed analysts estimates and reduced its full-year outlook as adverse currency effects and weaker demand in Brazil cut into sales. Whirlpool also unveiled plans to reduce its Brazil workforce by roughly 15% in an effort to bring costs in line with weaker sales.
Meanwhile, in an interview with ERT, it was revealed that Whirlpool for the UK will now be based at Peterborough.
