TATRA EXTENDS JOB CUTS

Koprivnice – Czech lorry maker Tatra will sack 569 staff early next year, dismissing a total of around 1,400 employees from mid-2008 to end-March 2009 instead of 820 it had originally announced, spokesman Vladimir Bystrov told CTK today. Staff numbers in Tatra will drop below 3,000. Tatra’s workforce was the highest in summer 2008 when it employed 4,397 people in total. Employees will start to leave the company in early January. The decision is based on the situation on world markets and the current number of expected orders for the first half of 2009, Tatra board chairman and chief executive Ronald Adams said. Tatra has to adjust its staff numbers so that it corresponds to the volume of orders from its clients if it wants to maintain healthy economic performance, Adams said. Non-production staff and administrative personnel will make up around half of the 569 employees to be dismissed in the company and its subsidiaries. Last year proved Tatra can be very profitable in good times when it has a lot of orders, Adams said. But now when the global financial crisis is leading Tatra into bad times, the firm has to stay in the black, he said, adding it is waiting for a revival which global markets should see at end-2009 or early 2010. Tatra has cut operating costs by up to 28 percent so far and is also trying to save on all investment and spending. Besides, it will reduce production in some of its facilities for three weeks a month in the first few months of 2009. ——- vet