Until March, B&R had been using an additional shift model for a year: a two-day week with work only on weekends for several hundred employees. This “experiment”, which was used to clear backlogs after delivery bottlenecks, caused a stir, and the automation company based in Eggelsberg (Braunau district) drew a satisfactory conclusion.
As reported in June, the wind has now changed: On Thursday, the company, which is part of the Swiss ABB Group, announced that it wanted to cut up to 240 administrative jobs in Austria. Production will not be affected, it says. The employees have been informed and the early warning system at the employment service has been activated. 2,500 employees are employed in Austria, the majority in Eggelsberg.
The number could be lower. Basically, the hope is that natural fluctuation, voluntary retirement, retraining, part-time retirement, sabbaticals (longer breaks), educational leave and reductions in working hours will suffice.
In addition, a social plan was agreed with the works council and a work foundation was set up to help people find new jobs. How many jobs are actually cut also depends on which and how many employees volunteer. If there are not enough voluntary volunteers, there will be layoffs.
Significantly fewer orders
By reducing staff numbers, B&R is reacting to the challenging market conditions. The company is faced with a significant build-up of inventories. In the second quarter, incoming orders in the Robotics and Manufacturing Automation division fell by 19 percent, which the group attributes to a normalization of ordering behavior after a phase of advanced orders and to a weaker market, as stated in the quarterly report. Manufacturing automation, which B&R also belongs to, is much more severely affected. The division contributes around a third of the sales of 833 million dollars in the second quarter. In Europe, the mechanical engineering segment is likely to remain under pressure until the end of the year.
