Handling, dismissal letters are being sent out

After years of discussion and fear, the matter concerning SEA Handling is coming to a turning point. Dismissal letters for 2314 employees of the handling company (ground services) connected with the airport management company, SEA, which has been criticised by the European Commission as a result of transfers received from the “SEA head office” over the past years. These 2314 dismissal letters herald the end of employment, but with the prospect of starting again with the new company, Airport Handling, which was created to satisfy Europe’s requests to break with the past of public aid (which is how Europe views it, given that the main shareholder in SEA was Milan City Council, that is, the public).

And what will happen after 1 July? There is still a lot of uncertainty, because the future of Airport Handling will also depend on the number of contracts that the new company manages to establish with the airline companies operating at Malpensa and Linate, where there is no shortage of competition. “On 1 July, any of the 2314 SEA Handling employees placed on flexibility will be taken on by Airport Handling, and the remainder will receive special redundancy payments, at zero hours, until 31 December 2014, when they too will be placed on flexibility,” says the trade union organisation, CUB Trasporti, which is very active among the ground staff.

“From 1/1/2015, of the hundreds of SEA Handling employees not taken on by Airport Handling, about 300 will transfer to SEA S.p.A., to security, and it is suggested that the others should either be given an incentive to leave, or, by means of the company clause, transfer to another handler that has acquired the work.” The negotiations between the companies and trade unions will start on Monday 28 April, with SEA Handling, and on Tuesday, with SEA, although people are also looking to Brussels; indeed, the outcome of the whole operation to save the SEA Handling employees will depend on the negotiations with the European Commission.