Trelleborg employees still in the dark over job losses

Employees at Trelleborg are still in the dark as to whose job will be axed after the company announced its intention to cut the workforce by 102.

The early retirement scheme offered by the company closed on Friday at noon with 35 employees taking up the offer, which means that the company still needs to shed about 67 workers.

A number of employees that contacted The Times insisted the company's offer was not an early retirement scheme but simply the full payment of a person's notice period in one lump sum.

"It is the Drydocks workers who took a handsome early retirement payment and not us," an irate employee complained.

The company's management confirmed that the offer was more of a redundancy sum equivalent to about 13 weeks of an employee's wage.

"It was described as an early retirement scheme so that people could understand. It was intended more as a scheme to help people stand on their own feet until they find another job," a company spokesman said.

He insisted the consultation period as determined by law was still open and the company would continue its discussions with the union.

"The 102 redundancies may be reviewed. Hopefully, they will be reviewed downwards but we can only be certain by the end of the 30-day consultation period that started on January 12," he said.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com