The main goal of the Metropolitan Table for Safeguarding the Productive Heritage is to establish the right conditions to support and consolidate the productive sectors in the metropolitan area in order to protect employment.

The Table operates in a first stage of consultation - not regulated by law and thus not compulsory for the parties - that aims to deal with the problems of unemployment, following the commitments that the Metropolitan City has taken with the social parties, within the framework of the Metropolitan Pact for Employment and Economic and Social Development. Therefore, the Table simply represents the institutional channel where firms and workers can meet and talk to each other before resorting to legal procedures, therein offering the possibility to manage in advance and jointly potential situations for social conflict.

The Metropolitan Table carries out primarily the following activities:

• coordination of the various stakeholders involved (owners, workers and their representatives), in agreement with the public entities (Region and Municipality of reference for the business case);
• mediation between the company and the unions;
• search for tailored solutions articulated on several levels according to the specificities of the corporate crisis;
• monitoring and support to companies through the introduction of restructuring or innovation elements in the manufacturing process to get over the ongoing critical phase.

The ability to coordinate and mediate, combined with the search for tailored solutions according to the characteristics of the corporate crisis, confer added value to the tools of action of the Metropolitan city in the field of economic development. The theme of corporate crises is, thus, linked to the tools and lines designed for the economic and productive development and the attractiveness of the metropolitan area.

The mediation activity usually takes place through the sharing of framework agreements or minutes of meetings that define the commitments and objectives for companies, workers and institutions.

Afterwards, there is a monitoring phase of the results achieved that is carried out by the structure of the technical support staff.