Italian company's branch makes statement for Telegraf after firing 348 workers in Belgrade: This is the reason

Photo: Telegraf.rs/AI illustration/Grok

The Belgrade branch of the Italian Lottomatica company has fired 348 employees from its IT sector in the middle of a working day, when they suddenly lost access to VPN, email and computers. The employees were fired via email, and could not use office cards and devices.

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On that occasion, Telegraf Biznis contacted the company to get their explanation.

Lottomatica stated that the decision was made for strategic reasons, as part of a deeper integration of PWO (the branch), with the aim of fully internalizing specific key activities within the central corporate functions.

"The process was carried out in line with all valid laws and regulations, as well as relevant legal and procedural frameworks," Lottomatica said.

Thyey also pointed out that employees received additional support:

"The company has devoted and will continue to devote significant attention to the people involved in the process, including severance payments that are significantly and consistently above legal requirements (including proportionality mechanism related to the number of family members), as well as the provision of outplacement services with local and international providers to support the transition to new jobs."

The Belgrade IT team was in charge of migrating the system to a new Lottomatica platform. According to unofficial information, the job was successfully completed, and that's when the team became redundant. The Italian trade union USB confirmed the layoffs in the Serbian PWO branch and expressed concern about the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs.

What appear to be testimonies of now former employees appeared on social networks:

"At 12 noon they shut down the VPN, we thought it was a malfunction. At 2 pm - an email arrived saying we are all fired. A colleague could not even leave the office, his card was deactivated. Computers locked. As if we were criminals."

"When they bought us (the company) they promised progress, better salaries, new roles. In the end - chaos without order and plan."

At the same time, the company announced record financial results, while the 348 workers in Belgrade have reportedly become jobless without warning and without any answers.

(Telegraf Biznis)