Automotive supplier ZKW recently announced that its factory in Wieselburg, Lower Austria, will be downsized. 600 of the 2,600 employees have to leave. The capacities in Slovakia, China and Mexico, on the other hand, will be expanded according to the plans presented on Thursday.
ZKW, as the largest employer in the region, has analyzed the situation in detail in recent months and “concluded that this job loss is absolutely necessary to restore the competitiveness of the production site in Wieselburg and the continuation of production”, emphasizes Andreas Nix, location manager of ZKW Lichtsysteme GmbH.
The automotive supply industry in Western Europe is facing several structural challenges, such as higher price pressure across the industry, increasing deindustrialization in Western Europe and high labor costs, a press release emphasizes. “The problem is exacerbated and accelerated by huge energy costs, high inflation, rising material costs and fragile global supply chains, among other factors.”
The company wants to behave “as socially acceptable as possible”.
The company assured that the “necessary personnel adjustments would be made as socially acceptable as possible”. In the permanent workforce, job cuts should “occur not only in the course of the dismissal of the employer, but also through natural departures (such as retirement), dismissal of employees without filling the positions involved and alternative working time models such as partial retirement” , it said. A voluntary social plan is offered to affected permanent employees. The works council had already been informed by the management, negotiations on the social plan would start immediately.
ZKW specializes in innovative premium lighting systems and electronics. The ZKW Group has twelve branches worldwide. In 2022, the group employed about 10,000 people and generated a total turnover of about 1.36 billion euros.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
