Almost every third Pliva employee, totaling 790, can expect to be laid off in the very near future. The average severance packages will be at the level of 300,000 kuna, and some will leave Pliva with more than two million kuna.
– Due to the crisis and reduced employment opportunities, in agreement with the unions, we decided on significantly higher severance packages than the existing ones – said Matko Bolanča, CEO of Pliva, at a press conference held on Monday. Almost 50 days after the start of integration planning, Pliva has thus publicly announced the number of workers it plans to lay off.
Emphasizing the two thousand jobs that will be preserved and ambitious plans for the current year, such as a 30 percent increase in production, the management stated that these moves will ensure business stability.
– Currently, there are no indications of closing larger facilities – said Bolanča, adding that employees are leaving from various departments.
Although the CEO did not want to disclose the total cost of managing these workers, a simple calculation reveals that Pliva could pay around 240 million kuna for severance packages.
– The severance packages that were previously agreed upon in the collective agreement were already at a high level for Croatian standards, but we are very satisfied with this agreement – said Jasenka Maloseja, union representative at Pliva.
Programs for managing workers such as retraining have been announced, as well as an average salary increase of 12 percent for workers who remain at Pliva. The mentioned increase will be most felt by those with lower salary coefficients. However, employees still need to be informed about who can expect a layoff and who can hope for a salary increase. (Tatjana Brebrić, photo: Lider)
