The multinational announces the dismissal of 40 percent of the personnel of the Sermoneta (Latina) plant, excluding the use of social safety nets. Meeting with the Ministry of Labour, with an eight-hour strike and garrison in front of the headquarters in via Flavia
Just fired, without even the support of social safety nets. This seems to be the fate of the 192 workers (out of a total of 491 employees) of Corden Pharma, pharmaceutical company of Sermoneta (Latina). A dramatic situation, which precipitated last week, which today (Thursday 15 
November) an attempt will be made to bring it back onto more acceptable tracks during the meeting held in Rome at 10 am at the Ministry of Labour. In support of the crisis table, the unions have called an eight-hour strike, with a garrison in front of the office of the dicastery.
The 192 layoffs (equal to 40 percent of the entire staff), which should start in January, were announced by Corden last November 9, during a meeting in the Prefecture. Furthermore, for these redundancies, the group has not so far provided for the use of social safety nets, a measure strongly contested by the unions (Filctem Cgil, Femca Cisl, Uiltec Uil, Ugl Chimici and Confail). The situation is further aggravated by the initiation of the arrangement procedure in continuity - which would pave the way, if no solutions are found, even to the possible bankruptcy of the company - and by the cut of future salaries of 15 per cent, to which is added the partial non-payment of October paycheck.
Corden Pharma was founded in 2006 as a private pharmaceutical brand of the International chemical investors group (Icig). It owns three plants in Italy – Bergamo, Caponago (Monza) and Sermoneta (Latina) – and another six in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. The Sermoneta plant was acquired by the multinational in 2010, previously it was owned by the American Bristol Myers Squibb. According to reports from the group, the site loses around 28 million euros annually, and over the last few years it has already undergone heavy restructuring, with the consequent decrease in staff.
The president of the Province and the mayors of Latina, Pontinia, Sermoneta, Norma and Sezze, have meanwhile requested the Ministry of Economic Development (with a unitary document) for recognition of the status of "complex industrial crisis area". For local administrators, the Corden crisis "risks becoming a new Goodyear, and this area really can't afford it". The difficulties of the pharmaceutical company would lead to the "overall impoverishment of the productive and manufacturing fabric of the territory", affecting an area already subject to "economic recession and employment crisis", as well as possible "pollution by criminal phenomena". Hence the request for recognition, which would allow "the presentation of industrial reconversion and redevelopment projects", useful for "being able to emerge from the state of crisis, to envisage new development and to guarantee existing employment levels and create new ones".
Related news: Corden Pharma, today in the Ministry: 75 days remain to prevent the 192 layoffs
The difficulties experienced at the Sermoneta (Latina) site led the company to notify its 500 employees in recent days that it was unable to pay their October salary and the expected installment of the 14th month.
CordenPharma, a third-party drug manufacturer, is a multinational with ten production sites and just under 2,000 employees worldwide, in 2016 it produced revenues of 360 million euros. It is part of a larger group (International Chemical Investors Group) which has revenues of almost two billion euros.
