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In late January 2002, Matrix, the company which runs the main Italian web portal, Virgilio, announced 83 redundancies out of its staff of 295, with the workers concerned being placed on 'mobility lists' (a scheme whereby they receive an income and measures to help them find new jobs). Workers and trade unions opposed the job losses - the first major redundancies in Italy's 'dot.com' sector - and organised a strike, as well as other forms of protest.
Firms working largely through the internet, so-called 'dot.com' companies, have grown rapidly in Italy in recent years, with the number of employees in such activities growing from 9,500 in 1999 to 29,000 in 2002. However, the mounting problems in the global economy, and the recent slowdown in the European and Italian economies, have also had consequences for e-commerce. In January 2002, for the first time in Italy, a company working in this sector announced significant redundancies.
Matrix Spa runs Virgilio, the main Italian web portal, which had more than 7.7 million users and was responsible for 5.1 billion webpages being accessed in 2001. The company changed management in September 2001 and came under the direct control of Seat Pagine Gialle, a company (part of the Telecom group) which gathers advertisements for telephone directories. The new owner, faced with falling advertising revenue caused by the current economic climate, has decided on workforce reductions.
Matrix at present employs 295 workers. On 28 January 2002, after several meetings with trade unions, the company declared that 83 workers were going to be redundant from 31 January 2002. The company had not yet decided which categories of employee will be hit by the redundancies but they will probably be those working in purchasing and human resources. The technical sector will be less severely affected. The company plans to place the 'surplus' workers on 'mobility lists', rather than using the Wages Guarantee Fund (Cassa integrazione guadagni, Cig) (IT9802319F). The mobility list scheme for easing the blow of redundancies means that the workers concerned will receive an income for seven months and outplacement assistance within six months, or alternatively a payment of EUR 4,500 gross.
The Matrix workers strongly oppose the company's decisions. They believe that the job losses are not fair and will be counter-productive for the company, and that the outplacement assistance provided will not be adequate. The trade unions have called on the government to declare the dot.com sector to be in crisis, because this is the only way to allow recourse to the Wages Guarantee Fund and other 'social shock absorber' schemes to ease the effects of redundancies. The National Institute of Social Insurance (Istituto nazionale di previdenza sociale, Inps), which manages the 'social shock absorbers', has stressed that these schemes do not currently apply to workers in the 'net economy', even if the companies concerned have paid the relevant social contributions.
On 24 January 2002, the Matrix workforce went on strike and picketed the company's office in Milan, supported by Filcams-Cgil, the service sector affiliate of the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil), and Uiltucs-Uil, the service sector affiliate of the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil). The Matrix workers also took part in the general strike called by Cgil, the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl) and Uil on 29 January to protest against government policy (IT0201108N).
The 'traditional' strike at Matrix was accompanied by a form of 'multimedia' industrial action organised by workers at Virgilio, who created a website to publicise the protest actions taken against the company's decisions and to gather support and proposals. The website also seeks to help dot.com workers 'to demand the contractual rights and protection at present denied them, through recognition of the sector'.
Gabriele Battaglia, a Matrix workers' representative and member of Filcams-Cgil, strongly criticised the decision's taken by the company's new management: 'With the shift in management, what was before considered as an investment is now seen as a cost. We are in the forefront of a new labour force which does not accept the idea of the traditional 'fixed job'.'
The Seat Pagine Gialle group asserts that its internet division is responsible for its EUR 77 million budget deficit. This is why it needs 'to cut personnel, while meeting people's needs with outplacement measures'.
The case of Matrix Spa underlines the problems of the entire 'social shock absorbers' system, at a time when the trade union confederations are demanding its review by the government.