PKC Group announced on Friday that it had finalised the co-determination negotiations in its unit in Raahe for temporary lay-offs due to decreased demand of industrial electronics devices. As a result of the negotiations PKC Electronics shall lay-off 60 persons for a maximum of three months.

PKC Group finalized also the co-determination negotiations for temporary lay-offs of Kempele unit’s personnel on Friday. Negotiations were started due to decreased demand of wiring harnesses.

Lay-offs concern almost all PKC Group Oyj’s personnel in Kempele, about 250 persons. Lay-offs shall commence gradually and their duration will vary from function to function from one week to longer periods of time. Current plan is that the lay-offs last for a maximum of 14 weeks by the end of June, after which they may be prolonged if need be. Lay-offs will begin earliest in the beginning of February. (Stock Exchange release, during trade)

Raahe employs roughly 300 workers and thus temporary lay-offs account for 20% of work force.

If the Kempele lay-offs would last the maximum of 14 weeks for productional staff, the drop from 2008 figures equals roughly 50% in H1’09 and thus, the company is preparing for heavy drop in wiring harness business.

Electronics division: Nokia is a major customer for PKC Group, and presumably its expenditure cuts were the main reason for surprisingly drastic layoffs.

Harri Suutari cut also his own salary by 1/3 as a sympathy gesture.

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