Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development | WPN World People News

● The Italian company closed down due to increased worldwide competition

● EU funds to cover job-search, vocational training and mobility costs

1,610 call centre workers laid off in Italy by Almaviva Contact SpA, should receive EU aid worth €3,347,370, following a Budgets Committee vote on Thursday.

Almaviva Contact SpA had to close its call centre in Rome in late 2016. This resulted in 1,664 workers being made redundant in total. The company’s revenue fell by 45% between 2011 and 2015, due to high labour costs and increased pressure on prices from growing worldwide competition. As it was not possible to align the high labour costs with other Almaviva work centres, the closure could not be prevented, according to the draft report by the Committee on Budgets.

The co-funding mobilised through the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) will complement eight measures taken by the Italian authorities, which will include job-search, vocational training and the reimbursement of mobility costs. 79% of the 1,610 workers eligible for assistance are women, most of whom are between 30 and 55 years of age.

Source: European Parliament