Operator News
Italy – Campione d’Italia Casino currently unable to guarantee December 31 reopening
By Phil - 8 October 2021
Preparations to reopen the casino in the Italian enclave of Campione d’Italia by the end of the year are ongoing with meetings between the trade unions, the casino’s owners Campione d’Italia Casino and the delegate judge of the Court of Como all hoping to fix a firm reopening date.
The CEO of the Campione d’Italia Casino, Marco Ambrosini, has reluctantly confirmed that the reopening date is still fluid with the end of 2021 still an option.
“Unfortunately, it is not yet possible at the moment [to confirm a date], he said to new site Gioconews. “Of course, there was and remains the hope that it will be possible as soon as possible. The problems are many and the company is making every effort in its faculties to face and solve them.”
The first stumbling is staff with 174 people needing to be hired by the end of October, in order to get to work and try to reopen by the end of the year, to take advantage of the holiday season. This is less than half of the 490 employees who lost their jobs three years ago when the casino was declared bankrupt.
Tense negotiations are continuing with the various trade unions representing the workers. The industrial plan envisages 16 people in the administrative area, eight in security, five in general services and secretariat, three in the IT system, three in the gaming management, 16 in customer care and reception, 99 in games and 35 in slot machines. In some roles, the hiring of more workers who will alternate on the basis of part-time contracts is envisaged and so in the end the number of employed could rise to 185. The casino is also now close to naming a new board of directors, a decision that should have been finalised in August.
Mr. Ambrosini explained: “Negotiations started some time ago with the trade union counterparties for the formulation of a new contract, an indispensable tool for rehiring. However, the process consists of a series of phases that the company’s advisors are working on. It involves completing the definition of the industrial work plan, defining the recruitment criteria, opening the call for applications and appointing the commission that will make the selection. All these phases have been the subject of in-depth analysis for some time and will materialise in the near future .”
The delegate judge of the Court of Como, Marco Mancini, said it was now necessary ‘given the very strong doubts’ about meeting the reopening date of December 31 ‘to hear the legal representative of the casino, its sole shareholder and the professionals indicated in the plan in contradiction.’
