Nestlé has announced an employment regulation procedure that may affect up to 301 workers in Spain, with impact in Catalonia through the central headquarters of Esplugues de Llobregat and the coffee factories of Girona and Reus. The measure also reaches the plants of Pontecesures, in Pontevedra, Sebares, in Asturias, La Penilla, in Cantabria, and Miajadas, in Cáceres.
The adjustment will apply to office staff, sales teams, distribution centers, and six company factories. The multinational frames this decision within the increase in operating expenses, the change in consumption habits, and the need to advance towards automation and digitalization processes.
"This context drives the need to adapt the company to the current market challenges, and move towards a more efficient and agile model, focused on strategic brands and on the automation and digitalization of processes" - Nestlé
Impact in Catalonia pending the distribution by centers
For now, the company has not detailed how many workers will be affected in each center. That distribution will be known at the beginning of May, a particularly awaited piece of information in the Catalan facilities of Esplugues de Llobregat, Girona and Reus, where the workforce remains pending the real scope of the adjustment.
The formal negotiation will start on May 6, when a committee of thirteen union representatives will meet with the management. That meeting will mark the beginning of the process to finalize the conditions of the file and the definitive number of departures.
Union rejection to the adjustment
The union response has been immediate. From UGT at the Girona factory they reject the company's proposal and question both the scope and the justification of the cut.
"We consider that this massive job cut is unjustified, disproportionate and socially unacceptable" - UGT, Girona factory
"We are not facing a company in crisis, but a highly profitable organization that has chosen to transfer the cost of its strategy to its workforce" - UGT union section, Girona factory
CCOO, for its part, places the scope of the dossier in the whole of the company in Spain. The union indicates that the 301 layoffs are equivalent to 7.5% of the workforce, formed by 4,158 employees.
An adjustment linked to the group's global plan
The decision announced in Spain occurs within an international workforce reduction plan that the company announced in October last year. That program foresees the departure of 16,000 workers in two years, in a global reorganization that now has a direct translation in several productive and corporate centers of the State.
In Catalonia, attention is already focused on the headquarters in Esplugues de Llobregat and on the plants in Girona and Reus, awaiting the company to specify the distribution of those affected and for the negotiating table to begin to address a file that opens uncertainty among hundreds of working families.