Staff reduction consultations concluded at Vapo: Outcome Means Fewer Jobs Will be Lost Than Forecast

The staff reduction consultations which the Vapo Group launched in January 2012 for productive and financial reasons and due to a re-organization of activities have been concluded. The review of personnel costs followed on from the efficiency-enhancement programme that Vapo announced in December 2011. The aim of the efficiency-enhancement programme is to achieve annual savings in areas other than personnel costs of around EUR 10 million euros.

The objective set at the start of the consultations was to identify savings equivalent to around 90 person work years of wage costs. During the consultations the parties jointly identified savings that will mean that fewer jobs will be lost than forecast. Cost savings will come from measures such as lay-offs and turning holiday pay into time off. The Group Management Team and the management groups of the business areas will forego this year’s holiday pay gratuitously. Following the staff reduction consultations, the employer’s decisions will lead to around 60 job losses at Vapo Oy and its subsidiaries. When this year’s retirees, the ending of fixed-term employment contracts and the other savings agreed in the consultations are added in, the original savings objective will be achieved as planned.

All employees at risk of redundancy will be offered a support package designed to smooth the transition from employment at Vapo for those who choose it. The support package will depend on the length of employment in the Vapo Group, being equivalent to 6-10 months’ salary.

In 2011 the Vapo Group had an average of 1 226 employees, 783 of them in Finland.

For further information please contact:

Ahti Martikainen, Director, Communications and Public Affairs, Vapo Oy, tel. +358 20 790 5608