Ericsson announces 131 redundancies in Genoa

The Swedish telecommunications multinational Ericsson has initiated a collective redundancy procedure affecting 131 employees in Genoa. A letter from the group announcing this has been delivered to the workers, and confirmation has come from the general secretary of Slc Cgil Genoa, Sonia Montaldo, who explains that the letter setting out the collective redundancy procedure arrived this morning.

According to the trade union representative, this is “a devastating blow for employees, given that the owners are closing the entire Optics R&D department and part of another R&D department; these departments deal primarily with advanced network technologies and infrastructure”. As for the division known as Bnew, the company states that ‘all staff’ – amounting to ‘110 employees’ – will lose their jobs; in addition to these, there are a further ‘21 employees belonging to the BCSS organisation’. The launch of the procedure “forms part of a broader strategic decision by the group, aimed at reviewing its organisational structure and portfolio strategy”.

As set out in the procedure, Montaldo continues, ‘one of the causes lies in the constant and progressive decline of the Italian telecommunications market, which continues to face particularly challenging and difficult conditions. We are facing a genuine social crisis for Genoa and for the Erzelli technology hub project, which was supposed to be the flagship of the city’s research and technological innovation’, and he emphasises that ‘Ericsson, which operates in the field of information technology and new technologies relating to communications equipment, has decided to close its research and development department’.

The procedure, which involves 56 clerical staff, 64 middle managers and 11 senior managers, concludes Montaldo, “is a disaster for the company, which is losing the heart of its production process, and a setback for the development of the technology hub in Genoa. We call on politicians and institutions to tackle this dispute in a united and cohesive manner, because Genoa cannot afford such a disaster, neither for the workers nor for the city’s development’. On Monday 14 September, from 9.30 am to 11.30 am, a meeting of all the company’s staff will be held.

“One hundred and thirty-one redundancies in Genoa are unacceptable. We call on the Government to intervene immediately to halt a decision that risks affecting not only employment but also one of our city’s most important technological hubs.” This statement was issued by PD Senator Lorenzo Basso, Vice-Chair of the Senate’s Environment, Transport and Technological Innovation Committee; MP Alberto Pandolfo, PD Group Leader on the Chamber of Deputies’ Productive Activities Committee; and Valentina Ghio, Vice-Chair of the PD Group in the Chamber of Deputies; who have announced the tabling of two parliamentary questions, in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, following the initiation of the redundancy procedure.