Valmet to start co-determination negotiations for temporary lay-offs in Finland
April 22, 2020
The global Covid-19 pandemic causes uncertainty in Valmet's operating environment and the company announced on April 16, 2020 a withdrawal of its guidance for 2020. The impacts of the pandemic on Valmet's operations and business environment depend on the duration and severity of the crisis.
Thanks to its solid development during the past years, Valmet has a strong foundation to meet this new situation. However, the pandemic has reduced the workload in Finland and around the world especially in the services business which is done close to customers. Valmet has strived to balance the workload by moving employees to other parts of the company, reducing new recruitments and by utilizing vacations.
Due to financial and production related reasons, especially because of the decreasing workload and in order to prepare for the potential widening of the business impacts from the pandemic, the company starts co-determination negotiations on April 21, 2020 for temporary lay-offs. The employees under negotiations are the Services business line employees in Finland and EMEA area organization in Finland. The planned lay-offs are temporary and they last up to 90 days at maximum. At this point it is estimated that the need for lay-offs concerns around 200 employees. The targeting of the lay-offs and the number of impacted employees will be finalized during the co-determination negotiations.
Valmet employs 5,150 people in Finland, of which 1,700 employees in Services business line and EMEA area organization.
