Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Taranto Container Terminal (TCT), the company in charge of operating ship services at the container terminal of the Taranto port, announced 540 layoffs. The terminal has been closed for renovation since the end of 2014 and a significant share of the activities has been already moved to other sites of parent companies. Consequently, TCT activated the Wages Guarantee Fund for its 540 employees.
Following delays in implementing public and private investments for the terminal, initially expected to end in 2014, the government and the management of TCT signed a draft agreement on 11 May 2015, providing for the successful completion of the works by 2017 and the renewal of the Wages Guarantee Fund. However, the shareholders refused the plan, opting for the closure of the company. Following this decision, TCT activated a mobility procedure for all its workers and the Port Authority terminated the service contract.
Meetings between the government, the Port Authority, local institutions and trade unions are currently being held with a view to ensuring the relaunch of the terminal container activities. The government and the Port Authority expressed their intention to quickly find a new service provider and ensure the reemployment of the redundant workers.
Update, 23/12/2016: On 23 December 2016, the government approved a decree for the creation of a public agency in charge of retraining and relocating redundant workers from TCT as well as from other two Italian ports. Placement activities should take place over the next 36 months. The container terminal activities are still to be reassigned after a proposal for the management thereof has been deemed inadequate.
Eurofound (2015), TCT, Closure in Italy, factsheet number 84228, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/84228.