An agreement has been reached between Blutec, in receivership, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Sicily Region, INPS social security institute, trade unions and the Pelligra group, the new owners of the former Fiat plant. The expert in labor law Alessandro Paone called this “a historic agreement, one of a kind in Italy, that shows how dialogue and trade union negotiations are the most useful tools to solve seemingly insurmountable industrial crises”.
So a real turning point for the former Blutec plant at Termini Imerese, before that a Fiat production unit, now owned by Pelligra Italia, a group that specializes in the recovery and development of abandoned industrial areas. The agreement includes several measures to protect workers, including job continuity, welfare protection thanks to the support of INPS, and a concrete commitment by the Sicily Region and the Ministry of Economic Development to support the recovery plan through targeted investments and subsidies. Pelligra will hire, train and retrain 350 employees, while the remaining 190 human resources will be guided towards retirement thanks to extraordinary resources allocated by the Sicily Region.
“It is a historic agreement, one of a kind in Italy, that shows how dialogue and trade union negotiations are the most useful tools to solve seemingly insurmountable industrial crises”, stated lawyer Alessandro Paone, appointed by Blutec’s receivers, in turn appointed by the Ministry of Economic Development to manage the complex job crisis and negotiate with trade unions and the institutions. This led to the finalization of the framework agreement. The Termini Imerese question has been one of the hardest in terms of technical difficulty and delicate union relations, and always an area of social and trade union tensions. That is why, after 15 years of bankruptcy proceedings and tremendous, objectively exhausting legal initiatives, it was decided that the time had come to completely change the game, to abandon the purely technical-legal approach, perceived as a preparatory form of protection prior to dismissing workers. This is something that the local area and the trade unions would never have agreed to.
The focus was immediately placed on the protection of employees, the soothing of social tensions, offering opportunities and a future to people, considered as individuals rather than as a problem. With negotiations set up thus, the technical tools of labor law were directed towards an objective that was agreed upon by all the stakeholders, making it possible to overcome the enormous complexities encountered and addressed one by one from a legal point of view. We should therefore express appreciation for the Sicily Region, which has made available truly exceptional resources, for the Ministries involved for their support, but above all for the trade unions, with which objectively unique work has been performed, founded on trust and on frank and transparent discussions, in the interests of a common goal. One that we have fully achieved today. Then we should also remember the responsibility and courage of the receivers, who have worked commendably to complete their task”.
