Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Finnish and German engineering giants Nokia and Siemens, said on Wednesday it was shutting down one of its German units with the potential loss of 1,000 jobs.
German industrial giant Siemens and Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia will continue with their Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) venture after failing to find buyers for part of it, NSN said on Wednesday.
The state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jürgen Rüttgers, has come under heavy criticism and been forced to apologise for saying that Romanian workers are undisciplined and do not know what they are doing.
Nokia will reimburse the German state of North Rhine-Wesphalia more than €1.3 million ($2 million) to resolve a plant closure dispute that has cost the mobile phone giant tens of millions already, officials said Sunday.
Nokia will pay €30 million into a foundation to regenerate Bochum, the west German town hard hit by more than 3,000 job losses due to the mobile phone company’s closure of a plant there.
Employees at a Nokia plant to be closed in Bochum, Germany said Wednesday they are pleased with the €200 million severance package the cell phone maker has offered.
Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, announced an accord with employees Tuesday on the closure of its plant in Bochum, Germany, including a severance package of €200 million.
Nokia has been given one week to return €41 million of the subsidies it received from the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and NRW bank. The reasoning behind this demand is that Nokia created fewer jobs since 2002 than it promised.
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has offered workers in Bochum, Germany a chance to transfer to the new plant in Romania. Nokia’s 44 percent surge in net profit over the last quarter has stirred further anger among those affected by Nokia’s plant closure in Bochum and has intensified criticism.
Nokia’s closure of its German production plant in Bochum, a city in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and subsequent move of its production to Romania might have been in part caused by the Romanian region’s use of subsidies from European Regional Development Fund to attract Nokia. The new production plant in Romania is expected to produce mobile phones at a fraction of what production cost in Germany.
