前Ilva钢厂Acciaierie d’Italia拟将塔兰托等地休假员工增至8,622人

Acciaierie d’Italia, the former Ilva steelmaker, proposed almost doubling the number of furloughed workers at its Taranto plant and related sites across Italy to as many as 8,622, following a court-ordered shutdown over environmental issues.

The plan would cover 90% of the company’s 9,626 employees and last through Feb. 28, according to a company document seen by Bloomberg. The move, which would increase the number of furloughed workers from the current 4,450, is subject to consultations with unions and the Labor Ministry.

About 1,004 staff would remain on site to safeguard assets and maintain plant safety, environmental compliance and for administrative functions.

A Milan appeals court on Oct. 5 rejected a second request to suspend an order that hot-production operations at Taranto, once Europe’s largest steelworks, be suspended. Production in the hot area was suspended on Oct. 9, with one blast furnace kept on standby pending a Supreme Court decision. It would face shutdown by the end of this month in the absence of a court ruling in the company’s favor.

The government-appointed administrators overseeing the company while they look for a buyer have said the shutdown would disrupt downstream processing at other sites supplied from Taranto.

The affected processing sites include Genoa and Novi Ligure in northern Italy. They turn steel produced at Taranto into finished flat products such as cold-rolled and coated sheet used in appliances, and in the automotive and construction sectors. Without a steady supply from Taranto, their lines can’t run at normal levels.

As many as 6,964 of Taranto’s 7,875 workers would be covered by the expanded furlough, along with 870 of 917 in Genoa and 515 of 542 in Novi Ligure, the document showed. The rest of the affected workers are spread across other sites.

A representative for Acciaierie d’Italia declined to comment. In the document, the company said it needs to cut costs and align staffing with available capacity during the search for a buyer.

The Taranto plant, in Italy’s poorer south, has been at the heart of a long-running clash between efforts to preserve jobs and concerns over public health because of pollution.

Prosecutors seized parts of the site in 2012, and the company has since cycled through government-appointed administration, private ownership under ArcelorMittal SA and a return to state-led control.

It entered so-called extraordinary administration, while seeking a buyer, in 2024.

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Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Friday the government would “do everything we can” to address the crisis. The state has invested €5 billion ($5.6 billion) in the company by direct funding and through state-owned Invitalia SpA. “We are not the ones who closed Ilva,” she told reporters in Brussels.