Embraco in Slovakia (source: TASR)
Based on media reports, it now appears that due to the intervention of the Italian government, the US company Whirlpool will for the time being not cancel 500 jobs in Italy that should have been relocated to Slovakia. Embraco, a subsidiary of Whirlpool, has frozen the planned switch of 500 jobs in Riva di Chieri in Torino and has promised to keep them there until the end of 2018, the Pravda daily wrote on March 5, citing the Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni from March 2nd.
Whirlpool and its Italian presence
In 2014, Whirlpool took over its Italian competitor Indesit for about €758 million. Last November, the US concern announced that it was to scrap around 500 jobs in its plant near Torino where compressors for fridges are produced. The production should have been moved to Bratislava.
Two thousand people used to work in the Torino plant but currently there are only 535 employees there. The compressors should be made in another European plant belonging to the group, the TASR newswire wrote. Job cuts are inevitable, Whirlpool argues, to boost and keep European production.
