Nissan will lay off 211 workers, 37% of its workforce in Catalonia
The most affected center will be the El Prat spare parts plant, where 110 layoffs are planned
BarcelonaNissan specifies the impact of the employment regulation file (ERE) it will implement in Catalonia. Specifically, as confirmed to ARA by union sources, the Japanese firm will dismiss 211 workers at its centers in the Zona Franca and El Prat, where it has two plants: the spare parts center and the flexible areas center. Currently, Nissan employs 569 people in Catalonia. The company alleged two weeks ago that the dismissals were due to organizational and productive reasons.
Specifically, according to the same sources, the vast majority of those affected will be at the El Prat spare parts plant with 110 dismissals out of its 122 workers. Also included in the file are the NTC technical center in the Zona Franca, where management has proposed cutting 86 jobs, and the functional areas center in El Prat, with 15 dismissals. In both cases, an impact of around 20% of the total employees is expected. The company's management detailed these impacts in the meeting held this Monday with union representatives, although they did not provide further details on the possible reasons.
The unions oppose
Given the number of affected employees, labor representatives have already communicated that they will "frontally" reject the dismissals proposed by the company and they advance that they will study the technical report and the justifying memorandum of the procedure in which the company alleges economic, productive and organizational causes to justify the dismissals. For now, the next step will take place this Thursday morning, when the company and unions are summoned to a mediation in the Department of Business and Labor.
The dismissals in the Catalan plants are part of a context of Nissan's withdrawal from Europe. In fact, last week, the Japanese company announced that it would cut up to 900 jobs on the continent, including the 211 Catalan workers. Four years ago, the car manufacturer was the protagonist of one of the largest industrial EREs in the history of Catalonia, with up to 2,500 affected employees. The announcement ended with an agreement between Ebro and the Chinese company Chery that allowed production to be resumed at the Zona Franca facilities.