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.
The Ginori factory was founded in the XVIII century at Doccia, near Firenze. It is the most important porcelain factory in Italy and one of the most famous in the world. Ginori produced several types of porcelains, potteries, bathroom products and refractory materials. The company has plants in different countries, but the most important and "historical" one is located in Sesto Fiorentino (near Firenze), where 350 workers are employed.
At the beginning of May, the company announced a reorganisation plan that envisages: the loss of 109 jobs at the Sesto Fiorentino plant; the involvement of new investors; and the construction, in Sesto Fiorentino, of a new and technologically advanced plant, which should guarantee a significant increase in productivity. Moreover, the company requested to use the "extraordinary" Wage Guarantee Fund, a "social shock absorber" that intervenes in cases of restructuring, reorganisation, change of activity or a company's economic difficulties of particular social importance as regards employment.
The trade unions reacted harshly to the decision taken by the company, also because they fear that the new and technologically advanced plant could lead to further job losses.
The trade unions agreed with the company on the utilisation of the "extraordinary" Wage Guarantee Fund, but stressed that this should only be done with a view to the reinstatement of the redundant personnel. In alternative, the workers representatives supported the use of the "ordinary" Wage Guarantee Fund (a "social shock absorber" that intervenes only in the case of a transitory downturn of production due to temporary market difficulties) or the recourse to a "job-security agreement", a company agreement that, in order to avoid staff cuts, provides for a reduction in the working hours and pay of all the company's employees.
On 7 July, after some strikes that saw the involvement of the local authorities in the dispute, the company decided to postpone the recourse to the "extraordinary" Wage Guarantee Fund and to engage in further negotiations with the trade unions.
Eurofound (2006), Richard Ginori, Internal restructuring in Italy, factsheet number 63748, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/63748.
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