Microsoft Srl has launched a collective dismissal procedure covering 62 of its 995 employees in Italy. It is the US group’s third such procedure in three years, prompting three unions to suspend overtime, additional work and flexible working hours.

The action followed Filcams Cgil, Fisascat Cisl and Uiltucs’ joint national coordination on 26 October and a national staff assembly on 30 October. The unions described the response as a state of unrest and warned about employment stability and the future of professionals in Italy.

Microsoft launched the procedure on 2 October, covering 62 employees in its Milan and Rome offices, including one manager. A collective dismissal procedure (a formal process for reducing several positions at once) is the immediate employment issue. The larger dispute concerns how far the company will share decisions with workers.

The unions’ central objection extends beyond the Italian procedure. “What makes the industrial relations framework even more critical is the clear refusal of the US parent company to the union proposal for integrated company bargaining,” their note said.

Integrated company bargaining (company-wide negotiation over employment terms) would give unions a larger role in staffing, technology and working conditions. Without agreement, the three organisations say, transformation proceeds without the participation they consider indispensable.

Their unitary platform, presented last April for the first Supplementary Company Contract (negotiated terms supplementing the main workplace agreement), seeks several changes. The proposed package includes:

• stronger information and participation rights, plus improved working conditions;
• rules for smart working (flexible or remote work) and the right to disconnect (protection against work outside contracted hours);
• broader welfare, parenting and health protections; and
• a performance bonus.

After months of waiting, the unions say, the dismissal adds a critical element to organisational and technological change. They argue that this transformation makes stronger union confrontation necessary.

What does the procedure change for Microsoft’s 995 Italian staff?

The immediate change is a proposed 62-position reduction across Milan and Rome, including one manager. Some activities performed in Italy will move to international hubs in the United States, Ireland, India, Israel, Portugal and Romania. The transfer progressively concentrates functions and specialist skills abroad.

Microsoft says the reduction forms part of a broader reorganisation intended to make its operating model more efficient and competitive. It is centralising activities, concentrating specialist skills and reviewing services across technical support, customer service, commercial work, marketing, cybersecurity, and cloud and artificial-intelligence development. The rationale is strategic, but it leaves the future treatment of affected employees unresolved.

The company also cites technological evolution, growing automation and digital-assistance tools as forces redefining organisational structures. No automatic transition guarantee for those workers is stated, however.

Internationally, Microsoft is defining an incentive plan for voluntary redundancy (compensation offered to employees who agree to leave) that could involve 60,000 people by the end of 2026. The unions contrast that potential scale with Microsoft’s continuing revenue and profits in the tens of billions of dollars.

For Filcams Cgil, that financial strength is difficult to reconcile with repeated heavy staff reductions. The global plan remains a company incentive rather than a confirmed 60,000-job cut, so the figure marks exposure, not final job losses.

At a meeting on 4 November, Microsoft illustrated an early-retirement incentive plan and identified 11 relocation options. For technical profiles affected by the procedure, it also offered individual interviews with partner companies to help employees access new jobs.

The unions deemed the measures insufficient on both relocation prospects and economics. They said the proposed departure incentives were worse than those offered under the previous procedure. Those findings leave the alternatives disputed rather than demonstrated.

The three unions said: “It is not acceptable that a multinational group with economic results of this magnitude continues to reduce employment, passing on the consequences of its organisational choices and technological transformations to workers.” “Innovation and artificial intelligence cannot become tools to compress employment, impoverish the professional heritage present in Italy and weaken trade union relations.”

The unions also stated: “We ask Microsoft for concrete answers on safeguarding jobs, adequate accompanying measures and the willingness to open a serious discussion on integrative company bargaining. Negotiation and participation must be an integral part of the transformation processes, not elements to be excluded from company decisions.”

Any exit must occur exclusively on a voluntary basis, the unions reiterated. They seek concrete solutions to safeguard employment and enhance affected employees’ professional skills. The organisations reserve the right to announce further mobilisation initiatives if Microsoft does not provide satisfactory responses.