The workers: we in layoffs and thousands of euros invested for congresses. Luminaries hosted in prestigious locations and flickering resources for employees
Left at home with a letter communicating their placement in extraordinary layoffs, a "crate", moreover, which does not yet have a decree that endorses it, without any real negotiation with the unions or the identification of selection criteria on which, among the 1,400 workers, the layoffs should be. Sigma-Tau, the Italian pharmaceutical company, "frozen" 569 people in this way, including 214 pharmaceutical informants: among these there are also those who dealt with the provinces of Pordenone and Udine and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Thus it happens that jobs are also taken away from people who should instead be protected because they belong to protected categories.
The Spa with a plant in Pomezia Terme has often made headlines thanks to the protests that the workers have been carrying out for almost two months now, with the garrison in front of the plant and actions with a strong media impact. But if all this served to give visibility to the battle, it was not enough to change the company's mind which, on the contrary, continues on its path. At the end of February, an agreement was reached with the trade union organizations (today under consideration in the referendum) to ratify the use of the cash register which started on January 18 with a unilateral action by the Spa. According to some, a "halter" agreement, through which it is established that it is possible to obtain an integration to the cash treatment, but this would be withdrawn from the employee severance pay fund.
«They told us – explains one of the workers involved, one of the constituents of the Sigma-Tau whistleblower protection committee – that the company was in crisis and that a reorganization was necessary, and that there are no funds to advance the cash indemnity. Then we find out - he continues - that fellow whistleblowers are promoting the next scientific congress to be held in Sardinia among doctors. They have no money, but they invest thousands and thousands of euros (the estimate is 200,000) for a congress. Which isn't just one: followed by those in Florence, one for cardiologists, one for pulmonologists, one for orthopaedists... If we assume 100/150 thousand euros per event, we can easily get the million invested in promotion».
There are many suspicions about the origin of the Sigma-Tau crisis which suddenly hit Pomezia. The suspicion is that it was a piloted action "by increasing the costs of a site and distributing the turnover among various group companies, as emerged during a television program that dealt with the matter", remarks the worker.
