Indesit Company SpA : Indesit’s plan improved by €83m of extraordinary investments, higher production levels, gradual re-absorption of the workers involved and their protection using shock absorbers (extraordinary redundancy fund and solidarity contracts)

PRESS RELEASE

Indesit's plan improved by €83m of extraordinary investments,

higher production levels, gradual re-absorption of the workers involved and their protection using shock absorbers (extraordinary redundancy fund and solidarity contracts)

Incomprehensible refusal to reach agreement by the trade unions: failure to agree prevents access to redundancy schemes and penalizes the workers by triggering mobility procedures

Rome, 19 November 2013 - Indesit Company's top management yesterday met with government and the trade unions at the Ministry of Economic Development to verify the feasibility of an agreement over the re-organization plan designed to recover competitiveness and the solutions proposed to that end.

The company, in addition to the improvements already made to the plan in previous meetings, decided to concede further to the requests from the regions, bringing the plan for extra investments in Italy to €83M, higher production levels and more valued added production in the three Italian facilities and a gradual re-absorption of the workers involved thanks to the benefits expected of the investments and the foreseeable recovery of the markets.
After a night of talks, however, the Company was forced this morning to take note of the incomprehensible impossibility of reaching an agreement with the trade unions.
Given the importance of the plan for the Company's competitiveness in the medium-long term, after over five months of seeking constructive dialogue and faced with a new "No" from the unions, Indesit has no choice but to implement the plan unilaterally. The failure to find an agreement prevents access to shock-absorbing welfare resources and penalizes the workers by triggering the initiation of mobility procedures.
The plan under discussion envisaged the facility at Fabriano (AN) becoming the exclusive production centre for high innovation content built-in ovens (also producing those now made in Poland), small ovens (now made in Spain) and special products; the Comunanza (AP) plant was to have become the centre of innovation and production for high-end front-loading washing machines; and the Caserta facility, lastly, was to be the exclusive centre for the production of built-in fridges with high innovation content (also producing those now made in Turkey) and built-in gas hobs (including those originally scheduled for production in Poland).
In addition to the consolidation in Italy of the already existing higher value added production, new production would thus have been transferred to the Italian sites from Poland, Spain and Turkey, while Italian low-end production no longer sustainable (mainly to be moved to Eastern Europe) were to be relocated to the countries with the most favourable costs.
The plan also provided for the use of shock absorbers (redundancy pay and solidarity contracts) to be able to re-organize production (timings varying from site to site) and protect the people involved as well as possible and without losing professional know-how in view of the benefits expected of the investments and the foreseeable recovery of the markets. Lastly, the Company had agreed not to unilaterally start mobility procedures.

Indesit Company is one of the European leading manufacturers and distributors of major domestic appliances (washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, fridges, freezers, cookers, hoods, ovens and hobs). It is the undisputed leader in major markets such as Italy, the UK and Russia. Founded in 1975 and listed on the Milan stock exchange since 1987, the Group posted sales of €2.9 billion in 2012. Indesit Company has 8 industrial areas (in Italy, Poland, the UK, Russia and Turkey) and 16,000 employees. The Group's main brands ar e Indesit, Hotpoint and Scholtès.

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