Meyer Burger Technology AG to Cut 250 Jobs

Meyer Burger Technology AG is a name that most of you are likely to be not at all familial with, unless you spend a lot of time looking at materials. So before we being to talk about the job cuts being made by the company lets begin by taking a look at the way that the company chooses to describe itself, “We are specialists in slicing of hard and brittle materials such as silicone, sapphire, quartz, glass, ceramics, etc. Our process expertise, modern infrastructure and complete process lines allow us to continuously enhance and improve our products and processes. We also offer our customers a process and quality management system. By integrating our own products with those of our partner companies, we are able to offer complete BrickLines and WaferLines.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to cut back on about 250 jobs in order to make its balance sheet the way that they want it to be. Job cuts of this size, if they come to the USA, will be enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the company chooses to describe itself, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

The company put out a release about the job changes that they are making, “In response to the ongoing challenging market situation in the photovoltaic sector, Meyer Burger Technology Ltd (SIX Swiss Exchange: MBTN) is accelerating and expanding its current consolidation and optimisation programme. Since the beginning of 2012, the company has consolidated sales and service operations, simplified its organisational structure and restructured production. The overall number of permanent employees has been reduced by 19%, which is more than the 15% announced in March 2012, to 2,272 employees (FTE). The synergies and improvements which have already been achieved throughout the entire organisational structure must be further intensified and expedited. The market situation has made a further adaptation in capacities necessary. With around 2,000 employees (FTE) in future, the Meyer Burger Group will possess the necessary structure which will enable it to respond quickly and flexibly to changes in the market in a cost-efficient and customer-oriented fashion…Roth and Rau AG in Hohenstein-Ernstthal (Germany) will carry out further restructuring measures which are expected to result in the reduction of 50 employees. The ongoing development of future-oriented technologies, specifically in the area of heterojunction technology, is not impacted by these measures. At other locations worldwide, measures for optimisation and adjustments in capacities are being undertaken which could lead to a reduction in personnel of around 200 employees. At this point in time, it is not possible to break down which individual Group companies or countries will be impacted.”