Elcoteq to close Lohja plant, 242 to lose jobs

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Electronic components manufacturer Elcoteq has announced that it will close down its Lohja factory at the end of August.
      The company said on Wednesday that 215 factory workers and 27 other company employees would be laid off. At the same time, manufacturing in Finland would end.
      After the Lohja factory shuts down, Elcoteq will be left with 330 employees in Finland, at the company's facilities in Espoo and Salo.
      Espoo has operations linked with the Elcoteq's head offices, while Salo is a centre of the company's product development.
     
Co-determination talks with personnel on the planned staff cuts began in February. At one point Elcoteq said that it needed to let go up to 500 people.
      In the early part of the year the company has let go 326 people. Elcoteq employs 23,000 people worldwide.
     
The City of Lohja is already prepared for the impact of the loss of the Elcoteq plant.
      "This is a tragedy for the families of the employees, but as a city, we can get through this", said Lohja Mayor Elina Lehto.
      A crisis group has been set up in Lohja with representatives of the Ministry of Labour, the Lohja Health Centre, the City, and the local Lutheran parish.
      Mayor Lehto is not completely pessimistic: she says that there are hundreds of vacant jobs in the city - and between 35 and 40 in the metal industry alone. More jobs in the service sector are also expected in the coming years.
      Lohja is also ready to set up a "business incubator", if enough people interested in setting up companies in the area show up.
      Lohja has a population of about 37,000. Just over one in five residents who work in a profession commute to the Helsinki region to work.
     
Elcoteq relocated from its home base Lohja to Luxembourg last year.
      As a welcome gift, Luxembourg waived the special tax of one percent of the company's own capital which corporations normally have to pay to establish themselves in the country.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  M-real and Elcoteq to cut more than 1,000 jobs in Finland (7.2.2007)

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