Italy: Wind, the telephone company, signs an agreement with unions on a new strategic plan to improve competitiveness and maintain employment

network management and handling, affecting about 1,600 workers, Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA agreed, in January, after the Ministry for Economic Development stepped in, to suspend this decision and open talks with unions to find alternative solutions. Thus, the group’s management, the national and local Slc-CGIL, Fistel-Cisl and Uilcom-UIl unions, and the national coordination of the Unitary Workplace Representation Structures (RSUs) of the group signed, on October 10, a memorandum of understanding for an alternative system, whereby it will save EUR 35 million. Indeed, because of lower consumption due to the crisis and the lack of structural growth in the telecom industry, where the market is saturated, Wind has to cut costs and increase productivity to support competitiveness.