As a solution to an unforeseen rise in production costs at the Perugina chocolate factory, Nestlé has made a proposal to the union committee under the guise of a "generational pact to promote youth employment": Reduce your hours from 40 to 30 and, in return, we'll hire your son or daughter!
The trade unions FLAI-CGIL, FAI-CISL and UILA-UIL immediately slammed the company for proposing a trade off of workers' rights for more precarious jobs.
Furthermore, the unions have pointed out that as a result of reorganisation through early retirement schemes, the average age in the factory has dropped such that the children of the vast majority of today's factory workers are underage. "The employment of underage workers is a practice that we believe Nestlé does not wish to adopt anywhere in the world."
In a unified show of opposition, all production workers and 90% of office staff participated in the 2-hour work stoppages which took place over 3 shifts on July 26.
See Nestlé Perugina: Bye-bye “generational pact” [1]