Australian steel company BlueScope Steel has agreed with unions to cut 500 jobs at its Port Kemble steel mill so as not to shut down or mothball the entire plant. According to the company, 300 people of the main production and 200 people of service personnel will be laid off.
As a result, BlueScope Steel expects to save about US $ 150 million, which will allow it to continue producing steel products at competitive prices.
“We have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and steel prices continue to fall under pressure from growing Chinese exports,” said Paul O'Malley, CEO of BlueScope Steel.
Today, the Port Kemble plant employs about 3,500 people, 500 of whom will be laid off. The rest will have their wages frozen for the next three years.
A memorandum signed by unions and BlueScope Steel managers calls for austerity measures to be implemented by the end of this year.
The trade unions called the memorandum a "dirty rotten package of measures", but stressed that they have to make such sacrifices in order to save at least 3,000 jobs.
Since the introduction of these measures, shares in BlueScope Steel, which was spun off from the mining holding BHP Billiton in 2002, are up nearly 2 percent.
BlueScope Steel reaches an understanding with unions and workers in Port Kembla
|
Azovpromstal® 8 October 2015 г. 09:53 |
