Italy moves to help Parmalat
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Enrico Bondi took the reins at Parmalat after founder Calisto Tanzi resigned.
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ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Italian government has taken a major step to help the employees of Parmalat, a food company racked by billions in debt.
Italian Industry Minister Antonio Marzano told reporters Tuesday the government had issued a decree aimed at safeguarding the interest of employees of companies with more than 1,000 workers and more than 1 billion euros of debt.
While the measure is not a decree specially tailored for Parmalat, the company -- which has food operations around the world -- is expected to be the first company to take advantage of the decree.
The way the decree is supposed to work is that a company in financial trouble would pursue the government's support to seek the appointment of a commissioner with special powers to restructure the company.
The commissioner, or super-manager, would ensure that the company in trouble continues producing its goods and paying its salaries. The restructuring would bring the company back to its core business, help it restart production, and allow it to continue to pay salaries.
Presently, the government and the decree do not address financial support, but simply facilitate the creation of a system that would help the company go back to business. However, it is unclear at this time where in the case of Parmalat the money will come from to pay the salaries of an estimated 36,000 worldwide.
Agriculture Minister Giovanni Alemanno told reporters at the end of a cabinet meeting Tuesday that "the Italian government will activate negotiations with the European Union to guarantee state aid to companies involved in this crisis."
The government is asking the European Commission, the governing body of the EU, to recognize a state of crisis in the milk and cheese sector in Italy and suspend its rules on state aid for the dairy industry.
"The Italian government will call on the commission to recognize the state of crisis in the milk-cheese sector in Italy affected by the situation at Parmalat," the government said. "It will call at the same time for community support measures to be activated and an exemption with respect to the regime on state aid, to help suppliers to emerge from the different crises they are facing."
The purpose of the decree is to safeguard employees, not managers or shareholders, officials said.
Parmalat, which has food operations around the world, revealed last Friday it had a hole in its accounts of almost 4 billion euros ($4.9 billion), making it the biggest European corporate scandal to date.
That came after the Bank of America said papers showing Parmalat had 3.95 billion euros in a Cayman Islands unit were falsified.
Parmalat employs more than 36,200 people in 146 plants on five continents, making dairy products, bakery products, fruit juices and tomato-based products.
-- From CNN's Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci
