Wind turbine manufacturer Nordex has now fully implemented its cost-cutting programme with which it plans to return to the black next year. After trimming its operating expenses, the company has now also made the necessary adjustments to its European workforce. All told, around 260 jobs are affected by the programme.
“ In the interests of industrial peace and staff motivation, it was important for us to come up with a solution which ensured minimum hardship while remaining affordable, ” says Thomas Richterich, CEO of Nordex SE . “ We achieved this in constructive negotiations with the employee representative bodies. ”
Some 65 percent of the positions were removed by means of a volunteer programme. For this purpose, Nordex offered its employees a settlement, the amount of which was based on their length of service. Further reductions were achieved by staff handing in their own notice. In this way, it was possible to avoid the need for a broad hardship-minimisation plan or terminations for operational reasons. Moreover, such terminations have been ruled out for the immediate future as the contract with the employee representatives also provides for an employment guarantee until March 2013.
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Offshore Wind Staff , December 19, 2011; Image: nordex