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Ita Airways, here’s how the government reassures Lufthansa about the discontinuity with Alitalia

8 months ago babelfish

Ita Airways, here's how the government reassures Lufthansa about the discontinuity with Alitalia

There is no continuity between Ita and Alitalia: the government is trying to curb the sentences calling for the reinstatement of Alitalia employees in the new company and to reassure Lufthansa

There is no continuity between Ita Airways and Alitalia. Furthermore, Ita is a completely new company. This is the content of a rule approved by the Council of Ministers and disseminated through the press release of the Council of Ministers held on 25 September .

AN INTERPRETATIVE RULE WORTH 200 MILLION EUROS

The rule seems to be intended to interpret the decree of 9 October 2020 which established Ita Airways. In this way, the government tries to respond to the requests for clarity coming from Brussels and which must be satisfied in order to have the OK for Lufthansa's entry into ITA with an initial share of 41% and 325 million euros (the company German aims to acquire all of Ita). The agreement provides that if labor disputes were to call into question the discontinuity between ITA and Alitalia, the German company could exercise the right of withdrawal. The re-hiring of former Alitalia employees worries Lufthansa because it would place a burden of 200 million euros on Ita's budget. This point was clarified by Ita Airways executive president Antonino Turicchi in an interview with Corriere della Sera .

THE GOVERNMENT RULE THAT ESTABLISHES THE ABSENCE OF CONTINUITY

“Taking into account that a jurisprudential conflict has arisen regarding whether or not there is a corporate discontinuity between Alitalia-Società Aerea Italiana and Ita-Italia Trasporto Aereo Spa, and considering that this uncertainty is likely to have negative repercussions both on legal relationships both on public finance – we read in the press release on the Council of Ministers of 25 September – it was deemed necessary to approve an interpretative rule which, in coherence with the decisions of the European Commission, excludes that in the transition from Alitalia to Ita there is continuity between the two companies." The government's decision makes it clear that in the sale for one euro of the "Aviation" branch of Alitalia to Ita Airways in October 2021 there was no transfer of the business unit, thus also dismantling the arguments of various labor lawsuits won by former employees of the old national airline precisely on the basis of that case.

THE INTERVENTION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER ON ITA, ALITALIA AND LUFTHANSA

European Commissioner Didier Reynders also spoke on this point and underlined that Lufthansa's entry into ITA has not yet been notified to the European Antitrust. “I am open to meeting all relevant actors at government or corporate level – said Didier Reynders – but I have not received any formal request to do so”. The interpretative rule of the Council of Ministers could accelerate this path.

THE CASES OF FORMER ALITALIA EMPLOYEES SEEKING REINSTATEMENT IN ITA

The government's intervention comes after a series of appeals presented by some former Alitalia employees who would like to request reinstatement in the new ITA. Only last September 15th did a labor judge in Rome (Paolo Mormile) establish the right to employment in the new airline for 174 former Alitalia employees, 35 of whom had the rank of pilots or commanders. Before him, another labor judge from Rome and Milan confirmed the thesis of continuity between the two companies. The majority of sentences, however, blame former employees by denying them employment. To date, the Italian airline has had 38 favorable rulings – for a total of 841 appellants – and three unfavorable rulings, in whole or in part (for a total of 244 people to be hired). There are still 34 cases pending for a total of 564 former Alitalia employees. From these discrepancies in interpretation the jurisprudential agreement was born which pushed the Government to untangle the interpretative knots.

FOR THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION THERE IS NO DISCONTINUITY

The discontinuity, among other things, was established by a decision of the European Commission of 10 September 2021, precisely in compliance with which the transfer agreement between the two companies was signed. Ita, for example, will not have to return to Italy the 900 million in illegitimate state aid received by Alitalia when it was on the brink of collapse. Alitalia will pay the 900 million.

ASSOVOLO'S POSITION: THERE IS NO RULE TO INTERPRET

The position of Assovolo , the air transport sector union which handled many of the cases of former Alitalia employees, was not long in coming. The union, to Startmag , expressed its version of events in four points:

  • There is no "rule to interpret" but only "facts" whose assessment, and legal consequences, are the sole responsibility of the Judges (pursuant to articles 101 and 111 of the Constitution); there is then a structural difference between "economic continuity" valid for state aid, and "preservation of organizational identity valid for the right of workers to continue the relationship pursuant to Directive 23/2021 and art. 2112 cc" which is up to the Judges to ascertain and evaluate;
  • The European Commission is not a Judicial Body and adopts decisions only in matters reserved to it by the founding treaty, including the use or otherwise of illegitimate state aid and in violation of competition rules and NEVER issues relating to labor law and, less than ever, the right of providers to continue the employment relationship pursuant to Directive 23/2001 and art. 2112 cc in the case of transfer of a company or branch thereof;
  • The Italian State, through the Government and through it the Ministry of the Treasury, controls the ITA company (as well as Alitalia) and is therefore a "substantial party" in labor disputes and cannot interfere in them with rules having the force of law which determine the outcome of the dispute by imposing on the Judges the solution favorable to it: an intervention which is also inadmissible pursuant to art. 6 ECHR, European Convention on Human Rights, as well as the aforementioned constitutional provisions;
  • Immediate consequence, and of enormous importance: if the "interpretation" of the Government is "authentic", the Bankruptcy Judges of the Court of Civitavecchia, the Commissioners of Alitalia in AS, the leaders of ITA and the Ministry of the Treasury should immediately be investigated for fraudulent bankruptcy . In fact, they would have authorized the transfer of goods or sets of goods, distinct and not constituting a business branch, at the price of 1 euro (which is certainly not a "market price", as imposed by the EU Commission in the well-known Decision) instead of hundreds of millions of euros (the same passenger transport business branch – Aviation – was purchased by Alitalia in 2014 for over 900 million). The damage for all Alitalia's creditors in AS, including the Italian State which must recover hundreds of millions of illegitimate state aid, workers, suppliers etc., is in fact enormous.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/ita-airways-ecco-come-il-governo-tranquillizza-lufthansa-sulla-discontinuita-con-alitalia/ on Tue, 26 Sep 2023 13:46:48 +0000.