Beko, agreement close after deal on Siena site ownership and increased redundancy incentives

The dispute at the multinational household appliance company Beko is moving towards a framework agreement, which could take shape as early as next week. The meeting at Mimit on 8 April between the company, trade unions and institutions will be an important test of the progress made in recent days on the chapters that have slowed down the negotiations, even after the strong containment of redundancies compared to the initially announced number of 1,935. The first important step forward was the agreement on the ownership of the Siena site, the second, instead, concerned incentives and their raising to a level that for the unions is beginning to be considered. Let us see.

For the Siena site, there are important advances towards a possible reindustrialisation plan. After Beko itself had announced in recent days the name of the advisor that would take charge of the reindustrialisation plan, a solution has been found regarding ownership. The city council of Siena has approved the resolution for the approval of the memorandum of understanding between the National Agency for the Attraction of Investments and Enterprise Development spa (Invitalia) and the Municipality of Siena itself for the promotion and valorisation of the industrial area (the plant) in Viale Toselli, where the Beko Europe plant is currently located in Siena. 'The parties,' reads the protocol, 'also in view of the requests formulated by the central administration, intend to commit themselves, each within its own sphere of competence, to contributing to initiating a process of industrial reconversion functional to the protection of the areas of interest, and also in order to facilitate the subsequent process of re-industrialisation. For FdI deputy Francesco Michelotti, 'the agreement reached between the Municipality of Siena and Invitalia for the acquisition of Beko's industrial building represents a specific and functional instrument to speed up the reindustrialisation process. It is a memorandum of understanding that shows how the State and the Sienese administration are responding with facts to resolve a very serious company crisis'. Once the issue of ownership has been overcome, it will now be possible to start talking about the project, which for the unions is crucial, so much so that in recent months they have always said that without a solution for the Siena site whose closure had been announced, there would be no agreement.

The other important step forward was the upward adjustment of incentives, which the unions until the last meetings had considered too low. In a note Fiom, Fim and Uilm explain that there is a general commitment to use conservative tools, such as to exclude dismissals. "As for the incentives, Beko management has formulated a new proposal, taking into account at least in part the trade union's remarks, raising the amounts and simplifying the calculation scheme, up to a maximum for the over-50s who do not have a pension of 18 months' pay or 85,000 euro. The company also confirmed the allocation of a new product in Comunanza (within three months) as requested by the trade unions'. At the meeting on 8 April, given the developments, substantial steps forward are expected.