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Photo: REMO CASILLI / REUTERS
More than 50 creatives have gone on strike at luxury fashion company Gucci. The reason for this is the planned relocation of the company's design studio from Rome to Milan. Gucci employees fear a "mass layoff through the back door". It is the first strike by creative staff in the company's more than 100-year history. This is reported by the British newspaper »The Guardian«.
On Monday, the employees stopped work for four hours. Employees held up banners in front of the offices in Rome that read: "Gucci cuts but doesn't sew" and "At Gucci, dismissal is fashionable."
Gucci, which is owned by French luxury goods group Kering, announced in October that it would relocate 153 of its 219 design employees from the Italian capital to distant Milan in Lombardy. According to Chiara Giannotti, a trade union representative, the design office in Rome is the "heart of Gucc", where designers work and where all collections are created. She claimed Kering was using the restructuring to cut staff and lay off staff who are unable to leave Rome due to family commitments.
Gucci said that the relocation does not involve any staff reductions and will be carried out in full compliance with current regulations. The company added that it has also provided compensation offers for the affected employees.
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