Valmet cuts more than 400 jobs, mostly in Finland



Valmet cuts more than 400 jobs, mostly in Finland | Valmet, closure,

Valmet is cutting 325 jobs in Finland and 108 in Sweden. The cuts only affect white-collar and management positions, the firm said on Thursday.

The company has not yet revealed specific reductions at its various sites in Finland.

Valmet has approximately 1,500 employees in Central Finland, reports the Jyväskylä daily Keskisuomalainen. Nearly 1,100 of them are white-collar employees. Valmet's Rautpohja mill in Jyväskylä, established in 1938, is the core of its paper and board machine business.

According to Valmet's human resources director Anu Pires, the job cuts are based on the company's revised operating model and redundancy negotiations that began in early April. The new operating model takes effect in July. In March, the company said that it would make up to 395 workers in Finland redundant.

Unpaid summer holidays, too

Separately on Thursday, Valmet announced that it plans temporary layoffs in its board and paper mills business in Finland. Furloughs of up to three months will affect approximately 1,100 employees. The firm says the layoffs are necessary due to lower demand and a need to improve profitability.

Valmet says it has more than 19,000 employees worldwide, with some 6,600 of them in Finland. Last autumn, it announced 112 redundancies in Finland.

Tracing its industrial roots back to the 18th century, the company was named Valtion Metallitehtaat ("State Metal Factories") in 1945, shortened to Valmet a few years later. The Finnish state now only owns about 10 percent of its shares.

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