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What will happen to Tim employees with the spin-off of the network?

What will happen to Tim employees with the spin-off of the network?

What will be the fate of Tim's over 40,000 employees following the government-sanctioned spin-off operation? The wishes of the parties involved and the fears of the trade unions

The crucial nature of the game being played over Tim is given not only by the relevance of the network asset, considered strategic for the state for obvious reasons, but also by the employment issue. In fact, 40,665 employees work in the Italian group and there is the fear that the spin-off could cause redundancies. Not sure about the actual number.

THE DISTRIBUTION FEARS TIM EMPLOYEES

As underlined by Il Messaggero , there is a need to match the Kkr proposal presented to Tim's board of directors on June 22 (21 billion + 2 earn out ), in which it obtained the exclusivity, which transferred approximately 9 billion to Netco of debts and over 21,000 employees, included in the financial plan of the new network company handed over to the banks (turnover from 3.9 to 4.2 billion and ebitda from 1.5 to 2.5 billion both in 2031).

The employment issue does not now break into the negotiating table. In recent weeks, the unions had repeatedly stressed, for example, their apprehension about the rumors according to which Vivendi wanted a maximum of 8,000 employees in ServiceCo. Press rumors, of course, but for some observers, wishes specifically leaked by the French to make it clear that they are asking above all for the economic sustainability of the company in progress.

The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni declared that the direction taken by the Government is that of "assuming strategic control of the telecommunications network and safeguarding jobs". The same message can be seen in the decree prepared in mid-August which states that the Treasury "will have adequate powers to achieve the industrial plan".

Tim's delayering plan envisages that around 19,000 employees will remain on the domestic ServiceCo, destined to drop to around 17,000 in 2025-26. Difficult to understand why the French want similar cuts.

UNIONS ON THE BARRICADES

A situation of total uncertainty that leaves the workers' representatives very tense. Fabrizio Solari , General Secretary of SLC CGIL, declared: "Bitterness and concern remain for a story played out exclusively in the logic of finance, with close attention to the interests of shareholders and the many noble creditors, but which has carefully avoided a transparent confrontation on the industrial, occupational aspects and on the general interests of the country.” The trade unionist then reiterated the belated interest of the executive in the affair: "In recent months the Government has carelessly moved from the intentions of a single network to the objective of the national network, ending with the decision to acquire a minority stake in the incorporating a company of the TIM network, leaving at least 65% of the share package to the American fund KKR.”

Salvo Ugliarolo , UILCOM UIL Secretary General echoes him: "In the absence of real solutions, this choice will only create a real social bomb and we are not willing to remain silent in the face of wrong choices that this government implements to the detriment of this company, of the sector and above all of the future of thousands of workers who, once again, are risking their jobs due to the incapacity of our political class”.

The concerns of Alessandro Faraoni , National Secretary General of FISTEL CISL, were more moderate, who commented: "Faced with a political choice, albeit not shared on the separation of the network from the services, it is necessary to confront each other to guarantee the occupational and professional stability of the workers, as well as the definition of a path towards a digitization of the country which sees more and more subjects interested in innovative services such as cloud, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, etc.”

And he added: ” We are concerned about possible redundancies in service activities, even though we know that the ever-changing enterprise world absorbs a significant share of workers. We ask the Government to commit itself to guaranteeing workers with tools to accompany retirement and industrially through the entry of public companies that are participating in the digitization processes in TIM's company, to create synergies and guarantee workers a future on the new frontiers of innovation."


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/cosa-succedera-ai-dipendenti-tim-con-lo-scorporo-della-rete/ on Mon, 04 Sep 2023 09:25:49 +0000.