DISPUTES. The agreement between the unions and the company on the exit plan was signed yesterday after a long negotiation started in February.
The "cuts" from 246 to 159, part-time and incentivized exits Debruyne: "Limited social impact to guarantee and consolidate the activity of GSK in Verona and in Italy"
No longer 246 redundant workers but 159, recourse to part-time work and better economic conditions for redundancy incentives. These are the cornerstones of the agreement signed yesterday between the pharmaceutical multinational GlaxoSmithKline, the RSU coordination and the trade union organizations Filctem-Cgil, Femca Cisl and Uilcem Uil. A complex negotiation, which began in February, after the launch by GSK of the mobility procedure for 246 workers out of the 1,477 employed in Verona between Gms and Pharma production: a restructuring as part of a strategic plan, which aimed to rebalance the presence of the company in the various areas of health care.
Of the 159 personnel cuts, 20 relate to "internal" employees of the Verona office (who in all probability will be relocated to the Veronese office of Aptuit) and 139 concern medical-scientific informants scattered throughout the national territory. Among these, over 40 workers are eligible for retirement during the mobility period.
«It is an important agreement, which responsibly regulates the social impact of the necessary commercial reorganization», is the comment of Luc Debruyne, president and CEO of GSK Italia, «and which will allow us to consolidate and guarantee our activities in Verona and throughout Italy». Alessandro Marchini, vice president of human resources and communication, underlines how the speed with which the agreement was reached and the effectiveness of the solutions put in place are the result of mature and responsible work by all parties. «Taking into account that we are unfortunately talking about an agreement that serves to manage the umpteenth redundancy of personnel, I judge the positive agreement in the context», says Dennis Gambillara, of the Uilcem Uil Verona secretariat, «because it gives us time until the end of the 2012 to govern the various problems resulting from the reorganisation".
Among the most important aspects, the introduction of part-time, which will be activated on an experimental basis on six positions of the "Primary care and prevention" line: if it works, it will be extended to another six positions next year. "This tool breaks a taboo and could allow us to give an answer to some social needs", explains Gambillara, "as well as being useful for reducing the negative impact on employment".
Furthermore, the trade union organizations have obtained an extension of the period of dismissal (from 18 to 21 months): access to mobility therefore remains open until 31 December 2012. A "joint working group" will then be set up will verify the correct functioning of the organizational structures following the application of the new business model and the correct application of the agreement. Among the elements that led the unions to positively judge the agreement reached, there was also support for external relocation and retraining, with the activation of the Welfarma network (agreement on welfare to work) and the criterion of voluntary departures as fundamental element of choice, encouraged by important economic solutions. Finally, particular attention will be paid in the event of any transfers, with solutions as much as possible to the benefit of the worker.
Manuela Trevi
