San Benedetto layoffs and AI

Il Post (November 10, 2026), after "Secondo quanto detto dai sindacati" (according to the unions): "L’azienda, che ha sede a Scorzè, in provincia di Venezia, ha inoltre detto di aver avviato una riorganizzazione che prevede un maggior ricorso all’intelligenza artificiale e l’affidamento di alcune attività a ditte esterne." (The company also said it had started a reorganisation involving greater use of artificial intelligence and handing some activities to outside firms.) The company's own note of the same day names no AI: "La decisione nasce dalla necessità di affrontare un contesto economico e normativo sempre più complesso", citing higher raw material, energy and transport costs and new EU packaging rules.

San Benedetto, the Italian mineral water and soft drinks maker, opened a collective redundancy procedure on November 10, 2026 for 120 of the 1,001 employees at its headquarters and plant in Scorzè, near Venice, 70 of them to go through voluntary exits. Its own note gives rising raw material, energy and transport costs and new EU packaging rules as the reasons and says some support activities will be outsourced; it does not mention AI. The CGIL, CISL and UIL unions said the company had also cited a reorganisation with greater use of AI, and Il Post and Sky TG24 reported this as part of the company's justification, so the AI link rests on the unions' account and the press, not on the company's own words, and the 120 are not counted. The unions declared a state of agitation and called a workers' assembly for November 17.

Roles the sources name:

Not specified

Share of the workforce:

about 12% (120 of 1,001 employees, both in the company's note)