The mineral water and soft drinks giant San Benedetto has started a collective dismissal procedure for 120 workers, out of a workforce of 1,001 employees. The decision concerns the plant based in Scorzè, in the province of Venice, and was communicated on Tuesday 10 November by the local trade union organizations in the food sector. The protest from CGIL, CISL and UIL was immediate, proclaiming a state of unrest.
Because San Benedetto wants to fire 120 employees
According to what was reported by the unions, San Benedetto motivated the procedure with the need to address the increase in production costs, the new European regulations and the consequences of the introduction of the Plastic Tax and the Sugar Tax.
Added to these reasons is a corporate reorganization process which involves greater use of artificial intelligence, together with the transformation and outsourcing of some general services.
Plastic Tax and Sugar Tax, introduced by the 2020 Budget Law, have not yet entered into force. The current legislation provides for its application from January 2027, while the 2027 budget bill proposes a further postponement to 1 July of the same year.
The unions protest: “The company is not in difficulty”
The decision provoked a harsh reaction from trade unions, who judge the measure to be “unacceptable” and contest the need for such a drastic intervention on employment.
For CGIL, CISL and UIL it is “a serious and worrying decision which comes, moreover, at a time when we do not seem to be faced with a company in such a difficult situation as to justify an intervention of this magnitude”.
The San Benedetto group, founded in 1956, is one of the main Italian operators in the soft drinks sector. On its official website it declares a consolidated turnover of 1.1 billion euros in 2024 and over 2,000 employees worldwide. However, these are data relating to the entire group and to a previous financial year, which alone do not allow us to evaluate the current economic situation of the company.
“We cannot accept that the answer to reorganization needs and corporate strategic choices is to pass the price of production and organizational transformations onto workers”, say the union representatives.
An urgent meeting with company management was also requested, with the aim of “immediately opening a real discussion and putting all alternative solutions to layoffs on the table”.
What the company says
Acqua Minerale San Benedetto SpA announces that it has started a personnel reduction procedure as part of a broader process of reorganization of activities at the Scorzè plant, with the aim of preserving company competitiveness and guaranteeing
sustainability of its activities in the long term.
The decision arises from the need to face an increasingly complex economic and regulatory context, characterized by two factors that significantly impact the prospects of the sector:
- Increase in production costs: the significant increase in the costs of raw materials, energy and
of transport, also due to international geopolitical tensions. - Evolution of the European regulatory framework: the growing concerns linked to the new ones
provisions on packaging, in particular the security deposit system and the obligations to use recycled plastic (rPET).
In light of these factors, San Benedetto deemed it necessary to intervene on its organizational model, also envisaging the outsourcing of some support activities, to concentrate resources and skills on the strategic functions that represent the heart of the company’s business.
The procedure affects a total of 120 job positions out of a workforce of 1,001 employees, of which 70 will require voluntary exits. The management of the employment consequences will be discussed with the trade unions, in compliance with current legislation.
San Benedetto is fully aware of the delicacy of this phase and confirms its desire to face it with responsibility and attention to the people involved, maintaining a constructive dialogue open with workers’ representatives, in the awareness of the importance of protecting the solidity and continuity of its industrial activities over time.