Italy: telecoms trade unions attack Iliad’s business methods

The source of this spat lies in a survey commissioned by Italy’s fourth largest telecoms operator, and carried out by the I-Com think tank. The report stated, ‘Iliad’s Italian business makes a significant economic growth impact,’ and investment by the operator would generate more than 34,000 new jobs (direst, indirect and sub-contractor jobs). The sector’s trade unions, SLC-Cgil, Fistel-Cisl, and Uilcom responded to the report scathingly saying, ‘the telecoms sector is in deep crisis due to aggressive competition policies implemented prior to Iliad’s entry to the Italian market, and which are even more accentuated today because of Iliad’s commercial dumping methods based on a low-cost framework with a few hundred workers and uncertain precarious sub-contracting work (…). We do not think Iliad can talk about making a significant impact on the country’s economy. Instead it has generated heavy commercial dumping across the whole system that has contributed to making working conditions precarious and uncertain.” The trade unions are calling for a meeting with Iliad to talk about the situation at the company and to discuss protection levels for workers.