Metso to Start Employee Reduction Negotiations


Helsinki, Finland, 19 August 2009 -- Metso will start personnel negotiations regarding permanent employee reductions and temporary lay-offs in the Finnish operations of Metso’s Automation business line. The negotiations affect the entire personnel of the Flow Control business unit, which manufactures industrial valves, and Automation business line’s shared administration and support functions. In the Process Automation Systems business unit the negotiations primarily target the personnel working in the paper and pulp industry function in Finland. The negotiations affect a total of about 1400 blue-collar and white-collar employees and are estimated to result in the reduction of a total of some 120-160 permanent positions.

Additionally, the temporary lay-off negotiations targeting the Flow Control business unit and the shared functions of Automation, are estimated to affect 90-150 people.

The primary reason for the adjustment is reduced demand resulting from the permanent structural change in the paper and pulp industry and the delayed investments by energy industry customers in virtually every market area as a result of the global economic crisis. Strong order backlog has kept the workload in the Flow Control business unit relatively good until this summer, but the weak level of new orders during the first half of the year has decreased the workload to a lower level. Customers’ decision-making affects on the unit’s workload from 9 to 12 months afterwards. The personnel negotiations aim to adjust operations to meet the needs of our customer industries.

Possible alternatives to decrease the number of reductions will be examined in the negotiations. Operations also will be adjusted to correspond to the decreased demand by reducing the use of temporary and leased labor. The extent to which the adjustment measures target the different personnel groups will be clarified during the negotiations.

The goal is to ensure that the level of customer service remains high despite the negotiations. Metso’s Automation business line employs more than 1500 people in Finland in 21 locations; its biggest sites are located in Helsinki and Tampere. It has about 760 employees in Helsinki and about 560 in Tampere. The Automation business line employs a total of about 3700 people globally and has operations in close to 40 countries.

Metso (www.metso.com) is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. The company has about 28,000 employees in more than 50 countries.