540 jobs saved in agreement on Termini Imerese plant

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 12 - Italian Business and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso on Monday said 540 jobs were saved at the former Fiat and Blutec vehicle engineering production site of Termini Imerese, Sicily, thanks to an agreement reached on Monday by local and national authorities, pensions and social security agency INPS, unions and the Pelligra company, the new investor which pledged to reindustrialize the plant.
    Urso called the agreement an "historic turning point" for Sicily and a step towards the "country's industrial rebirth".
    The agreement provides for measures to safeguard the jobs, the social protection of workers through INPS and the concrete commitment of the region and government to support the plan to relaunch the industrial plant through targeted investments, among others.
    Progress will be monitored to ensure the implementation of the accord which was reached after "negotiations that involved hundreds of workers and their families for over 13 years", said the regional business councillor in Sicily, Edy Tamajo.
    The plant, which once employed 700, was shut down on November 24, 2011.
    In 2019, the president and the CEO of Blutec, the company that took over the former Fiat plant near Palermo were arrested on suspicion of embezzling money from the State. (ANSA).