After one year of benefiting from ordinary redundancy funds, the Taranto-based plant of Italian steel group Ilva (the group's main plant which operates with blast furnaces) is to start availing of extraordinary redundancy funds. Meanwhile, the workers' union at the plant has asked for guarantees regarding full wage coverage and the rotation of workers - conditions which prevailed during the period of ordinary redundancy funds.
In Italy, with ordinary redundancy funds, government refunds are made available to pay 80 percent of wages even if workers stay at home. Extraordinary redundancy funds constitute an extension or second phase of the ordinary redundancy funds, but are only made available when the company in question is experiencing a very deep crisis.