Ficosa’s management is finalizing an ERE (Employment Regulation File) to lay off 172 people from its plant in Viladecavalls (Barcelona). The company, as reported by El Periódico, has begun to inform unions of its intention to present this ERE. Union sources assure that the company justifies this approximate number of layoffs, out of a total of 800 employees working at that plant, by citing a drop in production in the automotive sector.
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Of those potentially affected by the file, about 125 correspond to production personnel, both direct production – on assembly lines – and indirect – quality, logistics, and other services – while almost fifty are engineering personnel, according to union sources.
These sources assure that the plans to reduce staff were communicated to them about three weeks ago and they expect negotiations to begin in the coming days. A part of the departures, they point out, could correspond to a retirement plan or incentivized voluntary redundancies, in a workforce with a high percentage of workers over 50 and 60 years old.
The company, for its part, has indicated in a statement that the objective of the file is “to adapt its organizational and productive structure to the current level of activity.” “This is a difficult decision, which responds to changes in customer demand and production volumes of projects developed at the Viladecavalls plant, in a particularly demanding context for the entire global automotive sector,” Ficosa added.
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The company “Ficosa is fully aware of the impact this measure has on people and, therefore, faces this process with the utmost responsibility, respect, and willingness to dialogue,” it stated.
The Viladecavalls plant is mainly focused on advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as cameras, sensors, and safety devices for vehicles. Ficosa is controlled by the Pujol family, given that Japanese Panasonic officially announced in February that it was divesting its 69% stake in the capital.