Downsizing deals - Metso to reduce employees in mining and construction segment

Sunday, 01 Nov 2009

Metso announced that it has concluded the employee negotiations launched on September 9 in its Mining and Construction Technology segment. As a result of the negotiations, there will be a total of 76 personnel reductions of which 45 are blue-collar and 31 white-collar employees. The primary location to be effected by the personnel reductions is Tampere. In the negotiations, it was additionally decided to continue temporary layoffs based on workloads.

The personnel negotiations affected all personnel at Metso Minerals Inc., a total of approximately 1000 blue-collar and white-collar employees in Helsinki and Tampere. The negotiations were initially expected to result in the permanent reduction of approximately 80-100 positions.

Due to the global recession, investments by mining and construction industry customers have decreased or been postponed, which has partly affected our order backlog. The primary reason for the personnel negotiations was the need to adjust Mining and Construction Technology operations to correspond with the demand of our customer industries. Other adjustment measures, such as flexible working hours, advancement of annual leave and the limitation of leased labor, were previously carried out in collaboration with the personnel.

Metso’s Mining and Construction Technology segment employs about 1,000 people in Finland; its biggest sites are in Tampere and Helsinki. Globally, Metso’s Mining and Construction Technology segment employs about 10,000 people in more than 40 countries.