Smart working also in the former Ilva, involving 2,200 employees

Smart working also makes its debut in Acciaierie d'Italia under extraordinary administration. The former Ilva is probably among the last companies to resort to agile working, which was not applied even in 2020 and 2021, the crucial years of the pandemic. In those years, following an intervention by the Prefecture of Taranto, a ceiling was in fact set for the number of workers, both direct and from contractors, authorised to enter a factory with full-cycle production every day.

The agreement on smart working was reached on 9 December at a meeting in Rome between the trade unions Fim Cisl, Fiom CGIL, Uilm and Usb and Acciaierie d'Italia. At group level there will be 2,200 employees out of about 10,000, the application will be experimental and will cover the period from 1 January to 31 December 2025. The figures concerned will be managers, clerks and staff area employees, direct and indirect. Not blue collar workers therefore. There is no estimate yet on how many in Taranto - Acciaierie's main plant - will be involved in smart working. There will be a meeting at local headquarters to clarify the numbers. The agreement provides for four days a month working from home. Joining is on a voluntary basis, but the days will still have to be agreed with the company.

Smart working is a chapter of the agreement on the extraordinary redundancy fund signed by the parties last July, when a ceiling was set for 4,050 employees in the fund for one year, of which 3,500 in Taranto. However, the current cigs consensus offers lower numbers. According to the trade unions, 2,850 people are on lay-off, of which 2,300 in Taranto. In addition to smart working for flexibility, in the July agreement Acciaierie and trade unions also agreed on the economic integration of the lay-off by AdI to ensure that employees are covered by 70 per cent of their salaries; the provision of a one-off welfare payment to motivate staff; and the rotation of workers on lay-off, excluding from the latter 'employees assigned to maintenance and surveillance activities related to safety and the environment, when directly engaged in specific maintenance, surveillance and activities related to the restart plan'. Also included in the agreement is a training and retraining plan for employees focusing on 'Computer Literacy', 'Electric Furnace Production Process' and 'Digital Domiciliation'.

On the payment of the one-off bonus, there is still no definition because the production figures for December are lacking - at the end of November, with two blast furnaces in operation, on 1 and 4, Acciaierie produced 1.7 million tonnes of steel -, but the company has in any case assured the payment in January with payment on 12 February. Acciaierie, say the metalworkers' unions, has in fact spoken of 'possible achievement of the first-level objective provided for in the July agreement for the payment of the result bonus in January 2025'. This year, in fact, Acciaierie should close with a production of around 2 million tonnes.