From aviators to upholsterers: companies that have quit most workers during quarantine. Deal

One of the largest waves of layoffs in the world crashed this week at US aviation giant Boeing. The aircraft maker announced its intention to fire about 13,000. employees worldwide, of which 7 thousand. – Only in the United States. When the global tourism market stopped, the company suffered a coup de grace: in March, customers began to cancel passenger jet bookings en masse, and no new bookings were received in April.

In Lithuania, the aviation company is also laying off the largest number of employees during the quarantine: At the end of March, GetJet Airlines reported to the Employment Service that it was resigning 370 employees, the company had a total of 400 employees in January.

True, Darius Viltrakis, CEO of GetJet Airlines, expected that already this year, some of these people may be offered a new job. During the preparation of the publication, the companies asked about these plans, but we did not receive a response.

According to data from the Employment Service, a total of 47 companies reported the dismissal of the group’s employees during the quarantine in Lithuania, one of them, Vintex, a company engaged in the retail trade of second-hand goods, changed its mind. After announcing the 45 layoffs, the company reversed its decision after 2.5 weeks.

Reports of mass layoffs are currently declining, and the latest news about the group’s layoffs comes from Palink, which operated updated retail chains, a week ago.

15 minutes provides a list of the 15 companies that have reported the highest number of layoffs since the start of the quarantine. It is true that in not all cases these companies reduce the number of people due to the pandemic; There have been cases where the company withdraws from the Lithuanian market or sells part of the business with all employees.

More than 100 employees are being laid off by 3 companies.

More than a hundred employees were announced during the quarantine by three sacked companies: in addition to GetJet Airlines, the technology company Intermedix Lietuva reduced the number of employees by 175 and the confectionery company Molupis ir Ko reduced by 109. It is true that none of the last two cases it was associated with a coronavirus pandemic.

One of Kaunas’ largest employers, the American medical technology company Intermedix Lietuva, which had about 800 employees at the same time, decided to withdraw from Lithuania last year and started laying off employees in December.

At the time, Molupis ir Ko, one of Tauragė’s largest employers, had said goodbye to the 108 quarantined employees, and the bankrupt company. However, this is not a pandemic, quarantine, or trade restrictions: The confectionery company has been under pressure for huge debts for several years because the former owners did not measure the size of the investment. Businesses that baked bread, rolls, and cakes for 20 years were also spared by the restructuring.

“We were no longer able to pay very large contributions to the bank, we didn’t accumulate those funds, so we went to bankruptcy court ourselves.” 15 minutes said Biruta Cibitienė, director of Molupis ir Ko.

According to her, the claims for repayment contributed to the bankruptcy, and the fund she invested in the company tried to withdraw all the money.

“We ran out of working capital because the investment was too high and the performance too low. Therefore, due to certain mistakes in the past, we went bankrupt,” said the manager.

After nearly 90 employees, foreign-owned automaker Yazaki Wiring Technologies Lietuva and furniture maker Theca Furniture, which operates in the Klaipėda Free Economic Zone, decided to fire him.

Jurgita Mišeniovienė, CEO of Theca Furniture, a manufacturer of upholstered furniture in Kaunas and Alytus 15 minutes revealed that the layoffs were due to a decrease in the number of orders.

“The trend of lower orders has been visible since the beginning of the year, and the virus and quarantine have exacerbated the problem. Since we did not expect post-quarantine sales to return to last year’s level soon, the decision was made to reduce the number of employees, “said the manager.

We were not expecting post-quarantine sales to return to last year’s level anytime soon, so a decision was made to reduce the number of employees, the head of Theca Furniture said.

When asked if more layoffs are planned, J. Mišeniovienė said that it is difficult to forecast anything more than 2 to 4 weeks ahead, because nobody knows and cannot say how the world economy will continue to develop.

Textile companies also entered

Textile workers were among the companies that laid off most of the workers during the quarantine. Utenos Trikotažas, a textile company belonging to the SBA Group, has notified the Employment Service of the termination of contracts with 84 employees. The women’s clothing sewing company Rožė has decided to fire the majority of its employees: 76. 79 employees are also fired by the Lithuanian shoe manufacturer Lituanica.

SBA Vice President Jolanta Grašienė 15 minutes He commented that the decision to reduce the number of employees was due to the reduction in activity due to the pandemic and the tense situation in the textile market.

“To retain the majority of employees and ensure sustainable operations, the company focused on efficiency, gave up unnecessary costs and restructured processes. However, I had to say goodbye to a small number of people,” said J. Grašienė.

During the pandemic, approximately one-tenth, 84 workers, were in total downtime.

“It was agreed with the union to offer them to change the nature of their activities or to end their employment with all the benefits due by agreement of the parties. 30 people have chosen this last path, 5 people have been retrained and work in other divisions of the company, and the rest are currently inactive or have a certificate of incapacity to work, “said the SBA vice president.

In total, Utenos Trikotaža has almost 740 employees, but, as J.Grašienė noted, no one has been fired from the main sewing department and development is not even being considered.

“If the positive trends continue, we do not plan to substantially reduce the number of employees at the group level due to this year’s pandemic, especially given that we are planning further development,” J. Grašienė spoke about future plans.

And when it comes to state-paid subsidies to keep companies in jobs, the SBA vice president said they help during difficult times, but that they are not a major reason to keep employees.

“The main factors are long-term business sustainability and incoming orders. If the business is fundamentally unsustainable, I doubt that subsidies are a panacea. It can only be an extension of agony. And this applies to both large companies and However, for companies that are generally healthy but are unexpectedly affected by quarantine restrictions, subsidies can help them overcome temporary difficulties, “he said.

However, although the number of employees at Utenes Trikotažas decreased, some other SBA Group companies plan to expand: a new logistics warehouse was opened in the SBA Technology and Innovation Park in the Klaipėda district in April, and a new one is being built. furniture prefabrication plant next door. According to J.Grašienė, about a hundred people will work alone in these companies.

Aviation and cleaning services.

The dismissal of 70 employees was also notified to the Employment Service by the telecommunications company Telia, but company representatives emphasized that these employees would not remain unemployed.

Telia is transferring copper infrastructure maintenance services to Lantel, which has been operating since August 1. It will assume not only 65 employees, but also the equipment necessary for business continuity and the possibility of leasing the Telia facilities.

The new employer agrees to keep employees at least one year’s salary paid to Telia. Therefore, for this reason, we did not include Telia in the list of companies that fired most employees based on data from the Employment Service.

Agromėsa, Topo grupė, charter flights Avion Express, cleaning services company Sol Baltics OU Lietuvos filialas and bankrupt water construction company Nodama were also among the companies that quit most of the employees.

Worst of the past

Currently, unemployment in Lithuania reaches 11.5 percent. Economists predict that the peak of unemployment is about to be reached, so this number of unemployed is not expected to increase significantly.

“We forecast that the unemployment rate is near its peak. There may be more unemployment in the industrial sector, where orders have fallen, but the recovery in demand is already being seen in sectors oriented to domestic demand. The number of New jobs and layoffs are similar in May, with rising unemployment. So the worst is over, “he said. 15 minutes commented on Swedbank chief economist Nerijus Mačiulis.

Alexander Izgorodin agrees that Lithuania has already peaked in terms of unemployment and that we should not see any major layoffs in the near future.

According to him, already from the preliminary economic indicators it can be seen that the peak period of economic recession in Lithuania has already passed.

A. Izgorodin predicts locomotive indicators of the Lithuanian economy will begin to gradually improve in the near future, as major exporting partners, such as Germany, ease the quarantine, companies in most EU countries gradually resume operations and in April China’s consumption of non-essential goods recovery. According to A. Izgorodin, this is highly beneficial for the export-oriented EU economy and Lithuanian exporters, who receive many production orders from EU producers.

It also notes positive news in Lithuania: electricity consumption indicators have stabilized and Lithuanian consumer expectations have stabilized.

“We see that the scale of panic among Lithuanian consumers has decreased. Google data shows that the level of mobility of the population has also started to increase recently: people are more inclined to visit supermarkets and offices, and increased mobility of population also means more consumption. So I think the situation in the Lithuanian economy is gradually improving, so we shouldn’t see a big jump in unemployment in the near future. I think the worst is in the past, “concludes A Izgorodines.