The sacking of some 500 workers at Whirlpool unit Embraco's factory in northwest Italy has been "suspended" while the site is redeveloped, Italy's industrial development minister Carlo Calenda said on Friday.
"We have reached an agreement under which the firings have been suspended to allow time for the site to be redeveloped," Calenda said after a meeting in Rome between Embraco and trade unions.
Embraco and Whirlpool are committed under the accord, also in economic terms, Calenda added.
"During this period of time, employees will continue to receive their full salaries from Embraco. Therefore there will be no part-work or reduced hours," Calenda said.
Calenda on Wednesday said the Italian government was open to offers to redevelop the Riva di Chieri site and would present to unions the proposals received so far when he met them on Friday - the same day unions were due to stage protests in Turin over the plant's planned closure.
A subsidiary of US white goods giant Whirlpool, Embraco said in January it would close its Riva di Chieri factory, which makes refrigerators and washing machines, fire 497 out of 537 workers there and shift production to Slovakia.
When Embraco refused to reinstate the sacked Riva di Chieri workers, Calenda raised the case with the European Commission in February to see if Slovakia has breached European Union state aid rules and if Rome can intervene to save the plant without breaching those same rules.
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