Question with written answer S.4/08034 STUCCHI – To the Ministers of Labor and Social Policies and Economic Development
Senate act
Question for written answer 4-08034 presented by GIACOMO STUCCHI
Wednesday 13 September 2017, session no. 874
STUCCO – To the Ministers of Labor and Social Policies and Economic Development – Given that according to the questioner's knowledge:
the merger by incorporation of Alfa Wassermann SpA, Biofutura Pharma SpA and Sigma-Tau Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite SpA into Alfasigma SpA took place on 1 August 2017, bringing together in a single company some of the major national pharmaceutical groups, with wholly Italian capital ;
the total workforce of Alfasigma employs 1,696 units, located in various offices throughout the country;
with a letter dated 6 September 2017 to the Ministry of Labour, just over a month after the group was set up, the Alfasigma company presented a company restructuring plan, expressing its intention to achieve a "collective staff reduction" involving 456 employees, of which approx 275 are employed in the "external network" aged between 50 and 60 years;
in particular, these workers, already heavily damaged by the effects of the so-called Fornero law, would remain unemployed, as the sector is unable to reabsorb them,
you ask to know:
if the Ministers in address intend to urgently convene an institutional table with the Alfasigma company and the workers' representatives, in order to evaluate any useful solution that could allow the employees concerned to obtain guarantees regarding their future employment;
what initiatives they intend to undertake, so that the owners clarify the company reorganization proposal, which involves the workers, and provide useful elements for a correct assessment of the continuation of the production activity;
what initiatives they intend to promote, to deal with the industrial and production crisis that has been heavily affecting thousands of workers for several years.
Answered question in the MICCOLI Commission. — To the Minister of Economic Development
Answered question in committee 5-12112 presented by MICCOLI Marco text of Tuesday 12 September 2017, session n. 848
SMALL. — To the Minister of Economic Development . - To know - provided that:
Alfasigma spa is a pharmaceutical company that manufactures and distributes drugs for a wide variety of therapeutic areas: from prescription to self-medication, many of them are the result of research that began in the early 1960s;
Alfasigma spa was born in 2015, uniting in a single project some important national pharmaceutical groups: Alfa Wassermann, Sigma-Tau and Biofutura. It is an important Italian company, the third in the sector, with a turnover of over 1 billion and 3,100 employees;
its activity takes place at the production site of Alanno (PE), the operational headquarters and the production site of Pomezia, the administrative headquarters of Bologna and the legal one of Milan. The activity of scientific information of the drug is carried out throughout the country by Isf operators, coordinated by the Milan area management;
on 6 September 2017, Alfasigma communicated the start of a collective staff reduction procedure pursuant to law no. 223 of 1991, articles 24 and 4, and subsequent amendments. The affected employees are 456 (out of 1626) of which 274 scientific informants and 182 administrative, in all corporate offices. The heaviest numbers affect the Pomezia office, which risks from 250 to 300 layoffs;
the reasons given by the company in relation to the redundancies were: «the critical dimension in financial terms and the production structure in order to be able to act in the complex global competitive context»; «the slight decrease in the pharmaceutical market in the retail channel, in which Alfasigma's turnover is concentrated»; «national pharmaceutical spending 30 per cent lower than in other major European countries»; «the containment of expenditure in the sector» as for example in the revision of the formulary which took place in 2015»; lastly, but not least as a cause of the crisis, "the duplication" of some professional figures which was determined by the definitive maxi-merger, formally concluded on August 1st of this year;
during the public presentation of the new group – which was held on 6 September 2017 at the Assolombarda headquarters in Milan on the same day on which the redundancies were announced – Alfasigma presented its industrial plan highlighting the strategic choices aimed at developing the potential growth of the company through the development of research, the increase of 
site productivity and expansion into foreign markets. But at the end of the presentation, the company coldly expressed the need to proceed with a "reorganisation" which will go through the collective redundancy procedure;
in the face of this situation, the trade union organizations have proclaimed a state of agitation for the whole group with the blocking of supplementary activities, as well as a package of strike hours to be defined. However, it has already been decided that the first two hours - together with the same number of meetings to inform workers - will take place by 15 September with methods established locally, while for drug informants the meetings will be held the following week;
the questioner shares the alarm and concern of workers and trade union organizations regarding the dispute. At the same time, it seems unacceptable that a corporate relaunch passes through the cutting of labor costs, a now well-known and worn-out method -:
whether the Minister questioned intends to immediately convene the parties, with the opening of a discussion table at his department, in order to safeguard employment in full compliance with the company and sector relaunch operation. (5-12112)
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