Unions and ex-Ilva fail to agree on workers’ pay support

Unions and the company failed to agree on wage support for workers at the former Ilva steelworks in Italy.

The dispute comes as the steelworks’ future is being considered through binding offers from Arvedi and Jindal.

The proposed support could cover 8,622 workers, including employees at Taranto, Genoa and Novi Ligure.

Union representatives said they could not back the plan without clarity on the plants’ future and objected to stopping all the facilities.

Arvedi’s offer includes keeping rolling mills running and building two electric furnaces, while Jindal has proposed one electric furnace and supplying more steel slabs from Oman.

Unions are seeking a meeting with the government at Palazzo Chigi to discuss the offers and the wage-support plan, but no date has been set.

Payments to 4,450 workers are due on 12 December, according to assurances from Italy’s social security agency and the company.