Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Medcenter Container Terminal (MCT), the company operating ship services at the container terminal of the Gioia Tauro port, announced 442 dismissals.
The company, which employs about 1,300 workers in Gioia Tauro, suffers from a prolonged contraction of transshipment operations and it has already activated the Wages Guarantee Fund for five years. Redundancies will take effect as of 1 January 2017 and will affect crane operators, lifting truck operators and crew workers.
After the announcement, workers went on strikes and organised assemblies. Unions intend to reduce the number of dismissals by internalising some subcontracted activities.
The Ministry of Economic Development reacted to the company decision by proposing the creation of a public agency in charge of providing income support and relocating redundant workers at ports experiencing substantial decrease in traffic. Negotiations between national and local authorities, the company and unions are ongoing.
Update, 27/12/2016: After an agreement was reached in November based on the proposal of the Ministry for Economic Development, the government approved the creation of a public agency, which will take on the 422 Medcenter redundant workers as well as workers from other ports specialised in transshipment activities, which are experiencing severe crisis (see also TCTIT-2015). Workers will receive income support and training with a view to being relocated over the next three years. The Medcenter workers are expected to be employed in forthcoming works, for example for the building of a railway gateway and a dry dock in the port.
Eurofound (2016), Medcenter Container Terminal (MCT), Internal restructuring in Italy, factsheet number 89712, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/89712.
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