ILVA to lay off 6,500 workers as cleanup operations start
Unions told that employees will be out for two years
19 February, 18:10
(ANSA) - Taranto, February 19 - Managers at the troubled
ILVA steel mill in Taranto on Tuesday told unions they plan to
temporarily lay off some 6,500 workers while a cleanup operation
at the facilities gets underway, union sources told ANSA.The layoffs will take effect March 3 and will last 24 months, ILVA said, according to the sources.
Of the 6,500 layoffs, all but 83 will be at the plant in the southern port city of Taranto, the site of Italy's biggest steel plant.
Already 2,600 workers have been laid off at the Taranto plant; they were scheduled to return to work on March 2.
The facility has been at the center of a legal dispute between local prosecutors, who have called for its closing, and the national government, which has battled to keep it open to save jobs and expertise.
The ILVA debacle dates back to last summer.
A Taranto judge shut down the plant's smelters in July to protect the health of workers and nearby residents from toxic emissions found to have caused illnesses and deaths over a period of years.
In October, the court also seized control of products sitting in the docks, waiting to be commercialized, and issued a new wave of arrests in a corruption probe linked to the ongoing pollution probe.
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