Vestas Wind Systems Cuts 2,335 Jobs

While most of us can agree that finding energy sources that do not pollute should be a priority for the world, that is not enough to insulate workers in that industry from the job cuts that have come to just about every sector in the wake of the great recession.

Today the job cuts came to Vestas Wind Systems A/S and while that company may not be a household name they are the biggest, in terms of the revenue they generate on an annual basis, wind turbine production company in the world. Vestas, which is based in Aarhus, Denmark, is making a double hit  to the economy.

First off, they have already made an announcement that it will lay off 2,335 workers around the world. If that was not enough the jobs of another 1,600 workers are currently held in the balance. The company has told the U.S. Congress that if they do not extend tax breaks for renewable energy than the company will have to get rid of about 1,600 workers in order to make ends meet.

The company attributed the layoffs that are already definite to an attempt to reduce the fixed costs of the company by about $191 million (or €150 million) for the next fiscal year. The company is attributing this need to cut back on expenses to the slowdown of the market that came in the wake of the great recession.

The 2,335 jobs that are definitely going to be cut from a variety of nations. Here is a nation-by-nation breakdown of the jobs to be cut:

– 1,300 of the employees who will be out of a job live in Denmark

– 450 of the jobs to be cut will come from the nations of Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

– 400 of the jobs will be cut will come from China.

– 182 of the jobs to be cut will come from workers in the United States.

So, no matter where you live these job cuts would qualify as a mass layoff action, at least by the definition of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The company is already getting workers to ready for more cuts if the United States decides not to extend its Production Tax Credit for renewable energy. While the credit does not end until the end of this year, the company is still worried about the bottom line if the credit is not renewed. Vestas said the following about the credit in a statement, “This can result in layoffs of an additional 1,600 employees at the
factories in the USA.”

While you may not think that a tax credit can be tat critical to a businesses operations but the company managed to get some serious funding breaks with those credits. In 2010 the company was awarded roughly $51 million in federal tax credits through that program. The company has four facilities in the US, in which more than $1 billion have been invested, mostly in the four facilities in the state of Colorado.