AFAG plans to cut thirteen jobs out of a total of thirty-eight at its location in Zell in the Lucerne hinterland. The company justifies the reduction with a challenging economic development, despite consistently higher dividend gains over the past five years.
Employees Switzerland acknowledge this announcement with great concern. The company has been manufacturing components for assembly automation for 65 years and has supplied corporations such as Bosch and Siemens. It is also gravely concerning that the company shifted large parts of its production to Hungary as early as 2024, which already led to a wave of layoffs last year.
The company has so far been unable to demonstrate how such a reduction is possible without an imminent site closure.
The region of Lucerne is severely affected.
This renewed bad news hits a region already under pressure. The Lucerne economy was recently affected by further mass layoffs. Thus, Switzerland's industrial location is gradually losing production capacity, technical know-how, and skilled jobs.
In 2020, the company had settled in Lucerne with ambitious growth and personnel expansion goals. The contrast to the current situation highlights the increasing vulnerability of the industrial sector.
'Socially acceptable solutions are essential,' says Jan Borer, occupational psychologist at Employees Switzerland. 'It is unacceptable for the boundless financial ambitions of large US corporations to come at the expense of jobs and industrial know-how in Switzerland. We expect AFAG to communicate transparently about the future of the site and implement socially acceptable solutions for those affected.'
We demand: - Comprehensive consultation and review of job-preserving measures - A review and, if necessary, an adjustment of the existing social plan - Concrete measures for reintegration, further education, professional retraining, and, depending on the situation, opportunities for funded early retirement
Employees Switzerland expects the management and the corporation to fully assume their responsibility towards the employees and the region.