Not even an hour to decide what has already been established by others. “Either you quit and get a severance pay, or we’ll send you away and you don’t see a penny. You have fifty-seven minutes, let us know. ‘ This is the meaning of the content of an email that 15 employees of two Burberry stores at the Foxtown shopping center in Mendrisio, in the Canton of Ticino, not far from the border, received at the end of the day last Friday. It is a practice that is consolidating. After the case of the Florentine Gkn Driveline, an automotive company that fired its 422 workers by communicating the closure of the production site with a pec – without informing Confindustria or trade unions – the episode was repeated with another large fashion company.
“The apex – the unions made it known in a note – was reached on Friday (July 23, ed) when the company, at 3:33 pm, never wrote to the collaborators communicating the conclusion of the consultation procedure and that he would have waited until 16.30, 57 minutes, to receive any communications from employees who voluntarily wanted to leave the company. But the worst is that this communication was accompanied by blackmail: whoever would have given his consent to the dismissal would have received an exit allowance, who, on the contrary, did not consent, would have been fired without any exit allowance. More of a barbarian attitude than a Burberry! ”
It was known that the English luxury brand was not in good water and rumors of a possible dismissal of some of the Mendrisio workers, especially Italian frontiers, had been in the air for some time. But the unions were certain that a negotiation could be entered into, with a view to obtaining a social plan. Instead, the Unia and Ocst unions say, “the British luxury brand would have proved, from the very beginning, not very cooperative, arrogant and disrespectful of the dignity of workers”. “It goes without saying that the Burberry brand, backed by its legal consultants, has acted without scruples and trampled in an unworthy way its collaborators, who for years have concretely contributed to generating wealth for the company itself” they added.
Following the protests, something has moved. Giorgio Fonio, regional secretary of the OCST acronym announces it: «A negotiation has been opened with the company, which has said it wants to meet. The first appointment will be tomorrow morning, we hope that they will backtrack and that a real negotiation will open that will serve to discuss and implement a social plan worthy of the name ”