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Beko more than halves planned job cuts, minister says

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Cuts will be handled on voluntary basis, minister says

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Deal to be voted on by workers

(Changes sourcing to industry minister, adds no plant closures

in paragraphs 6-7)

By Alvise Armellini

ROME, April 9 (Reuters) - Italy's government has

brokered a deal between Turkish home appliances maker Beko and

trade unions to reduce planned job cuts in the country, Industry

Minister Adolfo Urso said on Wednesday.

Beko, owned by Arcelik, said in November it was

planning to cut almost 2,000 positions as part of a turnaround

drive at its Italian operations.

The company has now agreed to more than halve the number of

redundancies, and to handle them on a voluntary rather than

compulsory basis, Urso said in the lower house of parliament.

"It is a positive and in many ways unexpected result," the

minister said.

A spokesperson for Beko had no comment.

Beko confirmed a commitment made in January to invest 300

million euros ($332 million) in Italy, up from an initial pledge

of 110 million euros in November, and pulled back on plant

closure plans, Urso said.

In November, Beko said it would close two sites, one in

Tuscany's Siena and the other in the central Marche region. Urso

said no factory would now shut, but Siena would be taken over by

state-owned agency Invitalia and used for other purposes.

The Fim, Fiom, Uilm and Uglm unions said in a joint

statement that a "preliminary" deal was agreed, which would be

put to a workers' vote, and, if approved, finalised next week.

Urso said April 14 would be the date for the final

signature.

The unions did not comment on the details of the deal,

which was reached overnight at the industry ministry in Rome

after more than 12 hours of negotiations between the company and

workers' representatives.

Beko took on the loss-making Italian operations as part of

its 2023 purchase of Whirlpool's European domestic

appliances business.

($1 = 0.9048 euros)