The unions respond with a month of strikes to the proposed sale of Telecontact, the Tim subsidiary, which in the group’s plans must merge into DNA together with the same business branch of Gruppo Distribuzione. Slc Cgil, Fistel Cisl and Uilcom Uil, after the last meeting at the Ministry of Labour, have proclaimed a day of strike, 17 November, which will be followed by abstention from work for two hours at the end of the shift until 16 December. «This is an operation that makes no industrial sense» comments Riccardo Saccone, general secretary of Slc Cgil.
Telecontact, 1,591 workers, is based in Caltanissetta, Catanzaro, Naples, Rome, L’Aquila, Milan, Ivrea, Aosta. “The expressed intent – the unions report – is to carry out an extraordinary aggregation operation in the telecommunications sector, with an employment transition process which provides for new training and retraining of the workers involved towards the digitalisation of public administration, with a partnership with Poste Italiane, not better specified, in addition to the continuation of what is already in place in Tim, with respect to Vertical Energy, and naturally the customer services activities now active in Tim: a clumsy attempt to disguise yet another outsourcing in the sector in the customer care field. In fact, the employees would be sold, while part of the cash and some residual assets/liabilities would be retained in the parent company”.