A new dispute is erupting in the troubled Italian labor market. After announcing a restructuring plan with a potential staff cut of up to 770, Carrefour is being criticized by unions, who claim that the sale of over one hundred stores and the detailed analysis of the plan will result in much higher redundancies, up to 1.800 workers.

. The will declared by the parties seems to exclude a recourse to layoffs. In any case, it is "a bolt from the blue, we certainly did not expect the announcement of the fifth restructuring in 10 years and the umpteenth reduction in personnel", says the deputy general secretary, Paolo Andreani, explaining that "the multinational accelerates franchising, revises the 2019 industrial plan and penalizes employment" with the consequence of having up to "1.800 redundancies and the sale of 100 stores".

For the company, however, the transformation plan is "aimed at strengthening its growth" and includes, within the context of discussions with trade unions, "the activation of a social plan exclusively on a voluntary basis, which may include training and retraining interventions for personnel to facilitate their internal and external relocation, entrepreneurship support programs and incentives for leaving.

The impact on employment, says the large-scale retail group, is estimated at around 600 collaborators employed in direct sales outlets, distributed throughout the country, and around 170 people employed at the headquarters”. The retail sales outlets would be 106 according to Filcams-Cgil and 615 full-time equivalent positions in excess in the rest of the network and at the headquarters: the consequence, according to the union, is that around 1.800 people will be laid off”.

The plan "aims to recover 31 million euros on personnel costs - he explains - and would include the sale of 106 supermarkets and mini markets to small entrepreneurs during 2022, of which 41 in Lombardy, 18 in Campania, 17 in Liguria, 16 in Lazio, 6 in Tuscany, 4 in Emilia Romagna, 3 in Piedmont and 1 in Abruzzo and which should involve around 1.000 workers. The company - it is then explained - did not want to indicate which are the points of sale, committing to do so in the future".

To these thousand are added "the 615 full-time equivalents in excess (which could correspond to 800 people), 447 in the sales network and 168 in headquarters functions. Of a "blood and tears plan" of the multinational of the Gdo Carrefour Italia as it speaks of a "table with the trade unions of the category Cgil, Cisl Uil, in the presence of the CEO Christophe Rabatel" in which they speak of a restructuring plan among the heaviest in the most recent history of the multinational in Italy, with redundancies in 9 Regions and the sale of 106 stores", underlines Fisascat-Cisl.

“According to the company's intentions during 2022, the redundancies to be accompanied by the exit are around 900 units among the staff of the headquarters, markets, hypermarkets and cash & carry but - highlights the deputy general secretary of Fisascat Vincenzo Dell'Orefice - if you read carefully among the information provided by the management of the multinational, the total of those who will be expelled by the company closure rises dramatically if you take into account the 106 disused stores. The estimate of how many will have to exit would be around 2 thousand units, which are added to the 849 early retirees in 2020”.