Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Upim is a department store chain that has multiple shops in almost all the Italian regions. More specifically, it has 140 wholly-owned shops and 200 stores in franchising. Upim sells ready-to-wear clothes, cosmetics and household goods and has 2,500 employees. It belongs to the Rinascente group, the most important department stores owner in Italy.
In April, Upim announced a reorganisation plan that regards the closure of 15 shops throughout the country and the collective dismissal of the 445 workers employed in these shops through the activation of the so-called mobility procedure. In particular, the company decided to close the department store located in the centre of Milan - one of the groups most prestigious and larger department stores - with the consequent loss of 100 jobs.
At national level, the trade unions reacted to the companys decision by going out on strike on 3 June. In the department store located in the centre of Milan the workers representatives stationed in front of the entrances to the store during a week to protest against the companys decision to close this point of sale.
On 28 July the company and the trade unions reached an agreement on recourse to the social shock absorbers to reduce the negative social impact of lay-offs. Of the 445 workers, who are currently employed in the 15 shops that should be closed, 175 will be placed on the extraordinary Wage Guarantee Fund (Cassa integrazione guadagni straordinaria). The Wage Guarantee Fund scheme will start from August 2006 and will last for one year. Moreover, these workers will benefit of other types of social shock absorbers, such as mobility with a view to early retirement and economic incentives for voluntary resignation.
For the other 270 redundant workers, the agreement provides economic incentives for retirement for those who are already eligible and the opportunity to move to other units belonging to the group, specifically in plants that are located in the same provinces of the shops involved in the reorganisation plan.
Eurofound (2006), Upim, Closure in Italy, factsheet number 63638, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/63638.