High energy prices have forced a
steel mill in Switzerland to prepare for short-time working to avoid layoffs.
This content was published on
September 4, 2022 - 11:55 September 4, 2022 - 11:55 Keystone-SDA/NZZ/ac
The Stahl Gerlafingen steel plant
in the canton of Solothurn has been granted permission to resort to short-time
working from October to December as a preventive measure. The
mill consumes as much electricity as 70,000 households and is expecting a
bill of CHF45 million for October, writes the NZZ am Sonntag.
This is
more than the annual electricity cost, said company director Alain Creteur. The
factory, owned by Italian Beltrame Group, produces around 2,600 tonnes of
steel every day.
In
Switzerland, when a company finds itself in difficulty, it can temporarily
reduce the working hours of its staff (known as short-time working). The
employees then work at a lower percentage and the employer pays a lower salary.
The unemployment insurance compensates 80% of the loss of income of the
employee on short-time work.
The
measure was used by many Swiss companies in recent years as a result of
restrictions related to the Covid pandemic. This is one of the first cases of a
company using short-time working to deal with the energy crisis caused by the
war in Ukraine.
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