Caserta - The curtain falls on the Softlab Tech Srl affair. The IT company, after announcing its permanent closure on December 31st, has formally initiated the collective dismissal process for the 146 remaining employees in Caserta and Rome. This is an expected outcome, but no less painful for the workers, who have already been placed on zero-hours furlough until their termination.
The Jabil legacy and broken promises
The employment crisis is affecting the Caserta area in particular: 127 of those being laid off worked at the Caserta and Maddaloni plants, which had been closed for months. These employees are the last survivors of the "patrol" of nearly 250 workers who, a few years ago, accepted a transfer from the Marcianise-based multinational Jabil to Softlab.
The Softlab operation was conceived with the aim of securing future employment for former Jabil employees, with the company receiving several million euros from Jabil for their hiring. Despite agreements signed at the ministerial level, which were supposed to ensure job continuity, the reality was quite different: most Softlab Tech employees, including the 19 employees at the Rome office, were laid off for a long time without producing any work.
Over time, many of the initial 250 workers, particularly disheartened former Jabil employees, preferred to resign, reducing the workforce to below the current 150.
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The legal battle of the last resistance fighters
The story is further compounded by a legal case that demonstrates the desperation of some workers. Of the remaining 55 former Jabil employees, 36 have decided to challenge their reassignment to Softlab, triggering a civil lawsuit currently underway in the Santa Maria Capua Vetere court.
The initiation of the collective dismissal procedure for the 146 remaining employees effectively extinguishes any hope of a productive recovery in the Caserta area, an area already ravaged by industrial crises.
Negotiations for relocation to Mimit
Despite the bitter end, a faint thread of hope remains at the crisis meeting. At the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (MIMIT), discussions are underway to try to relocate the workers to other local production facilities.
Softlab Tech Srl is a subsidiary of the Softlab Group, which still employs several hundred people at its Rome and Lecce offices. The hope is that the parent company can actively contribute to finding dignified solutions for workers facing layoffs.
Comments (1)
The situation is truly worrying and sad. Many workers don't know what to do now, especially those who have been on furlough for a long time. I hope the ministry can find a solution for all those being laid off.