«They are separate companies, the local authorities respect EU decisions»- Corriere.it

Ita Airways and Alitalia are two different entities, they continue to be so today and the national authorities “must follow up” on this pronouncement. The European Commission confirms its decision of the summer of 2021 with which it established the “economic discontinuity” between the current flag carrier and the previous one. And he does so a few days after the sentence of a Rome labor judge who decided that 77 former Alitalia employees will have to be hired by Ita because according to him the existence of the transfer of the company branch would have been “ascertained” between the old and the new company.

Community position

Prompted by questions from journalists during a press conference in Brussels, the spokeswoman for the EU Competition Directorate General Arianna Podestà recalls that «on 10 September 2021 we established that, based on Italy’s plans for the new Ita company and the conditions under which some assets would have been transferred from Alitalia to Ita, that there was economic discontinuity between the two companies”. A “juridically valid decision, which remains and is applied”, underlines Podestà. “And it is the decision that the national authorities must follow.”

The application of the rules

“In general, it is the responsibility of the Member States to ensure compliance with Commission decisions, including the one I mentioned,” the spokeswoman continued. She recalls that “when we talk about proceedings in national courts, in general national judges can seek help on the application of State aid rules in the Commission’s decision-making process and on guidelines on the application of the rules. On the basis of the principle of mutual cooperation, national courts can also request assistance from the Commission.’ A position that “rescues” the Tesoro-Lufthansa agreement which provides for the entry of Germans into Ita at 41%.

The disputes

According to what the Courier is able to reconstruct the approximately 1,400 former Alitalia employees who sued Ita asking for the “reintegration” pursuant to Article 2112 of the Civil Code (“Maintenance of workers’ rights in the event of a company transfer”) against 77 who they won in the first degree, there are 732 others who instead have had their request rejected because the Labor judges considered that there were no details of the transfer of the company branch.

Lufthansa moves

Meanwhile, Lufthansa continues to strengthen its cash register. On Wednesday, June 21, it signed an agreement to sell one of its companies, AirPlus Servicekarten, to Sweden’s Seb Kort Bank AB for around 450 million euros. “The sale is the next big step in the group’s strategy to focus on its core business,” Lufthansa chief financial officer Remco Steenbergen said in a statement. “The sale of two group companies and the agreement on a stake in Ita clearly demonstrates our determination in implementing this strategy”. This disposal – for which Barclays analysts estimated a price of 50 million euros – is added to that of Lsg, a catering company, to the Aurelius fund. Meanwhile, he is looking for the best partner to bring into Technik, the division that deals with maintenance.