Nokia given extra time to respond to demands for payback of German subsidies

Discussions on terms of severance of Bochum factory staff begin next week

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A dispute continues between the mobile telephone manufacturer Nokia and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia over the state's demand that Nokia pay back tens of millions of euros in industrial subsidies in years past.
     Nokia recently announced the impending closure of its factory in the city of Bochum, and state authorities want the company to return more than EUR 41 million that it paid the company in the late 1990s in return for promises of investment and new jobs at the Bochum factory.
     
According to the state, Nokia brought fewer jobs than the subsidy agreement called for.
     Nokia was initially given a week to respond to the demand, and the time runs out today, Wednesday. The company says that it requested, and was granted an extension for making its case.
     The dispute centres around whether or not the temp workers at the factory should be taken into account when calculating the number of jobs created by the factory.
     The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has threatened to take Nokia to court to force it to pay back the subsidies.
     
Representatives of employees at the Bochum factory were in Finland on Tuesday for a second time to discuss the future of the factory with the company's management.
     Nokia rejected proposals for boosting profitability at the factory through measures including increased automation. "Unfortunately we did not get everything that we had hoped for. However, we did not completely lose", said Ulrike Kleinebrahm, a representative of the German IG Metall union
     The two sides agreed that negotiations between the management of Nokia's German operations and employees would begin next week.
     IG Metall says that the severance compensation will be the highest in German history. The Bochum factory is to be closed down by the summer, and 2,300 workers are expected to be left unemployed.
     A separate working group is to convene this week, with representatives from Nokia and the NRW state administration. The aim is to examine possibilities of employing the Nokia personnel who are being left unemployed.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nokia shutting down plant in Germany, moving manufacture to Romania (16.1.2008)
  Nokia could face series of court cases in Germany (7.2.2008)
  German magazine: Nokia factory in Bochum made EUR 134 million in profit last year (31.1.2008)
  Anti-Nokia sentiment unites Ruhr region in massive protest (23.1.2008)

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