Decreased production at Seat’s. Seat (Volkswagen)
told its employees that it needed to stop part of the production on the
Martorell site, near Barcelona, to face the dropping sales. The company, which
saw its sales drop by 20% between January and August 2008, plans to produce
21.000 fewer vehicles than the 400.000 announced for this year. To face the
decrease in production, Sear offered to send home 6.000 employees, through a
rotation until the end of the year, with the shutdown, by turns, of the flow
lines of the Altea, Leon and Ibiza models. The system to face technical unemployment
without appealing to temporary job cuts is to appeal to the flexibility allowed
by the hour share system. However, unions fear that the costs of this cessation
of production will be too high to be absorbed by this system. Seat’s flexibility
system provides that employees can stop work for 35 days a year with their
salary maintained to adjust to production drops. In exchange, employees “give
the hours back” during production peaks, with no compensation scheme. However, the representatives of the works
council doubt that the bad forecasts for 2009 will enable to balance the time
and do not rule out the perspective of staffing cuts.
ployees can stop work for 35 days a year with their
salary maintained to adjust to production drops. In exchange, employees “give
the hours back” during production peaks, with no compensation scheme.
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