Brussels, 21/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 7 August, the European Commission proposed to grant €1.4 million for former Alitalia employees in Italy, under the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). The objective is to support 184 redundant employees in their search for work. Most of these redundancies took place in the region of Lazio, which was already strongly affected by unemployment.
European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Marianne Thyssen commented: “Many sectors and industries in Europe are going through major structural changes as a consequence of globalisation. Through this [European Globalisation] Fund, we are supporting the transition of former Alitalia workers into new jobs”. According to Thyssen, aid provided by the EGF is having a positive impact, with a re-employment rate of almost 50% amongst workers having benefitted from this personalised and targeted assistance.
Italy requested EGF assistance after the dismissal of 1,249 employees from Alitalia at the end of 2014. The job losses were the result of the decline of the EU's market share in international passenger air transport between 2008 and 2014. The measures co-financed by the EGF aim to help the 184 former employees facing the greatest difficulties in finding new jobs by providing them with skill assessment, active job-search support, training, reimbursement of their travel costs to take part in training, and recruitment incentives.
The total cost of the package of measures is estimated at €2.3 million, of which the EGF would provide €1.4 million. The remainder would come from national financing sources. The proposal must now be put to the European Parliament and Council of the EU for approval. Since being created in 2007, the EGF has received 138 applications for some €550 million to help almost 130,000 workers. (Isabelle Lamberty)