Lanxess to Reduce or Halt Production at Numerous German Facilities

Following reaching an agreement with employee representatives, Lanxess AG has announced its plans to cut back or shut down production at 23 out of 45 of its German production facilities over the Christmas period and into January 2009. These arrangements, planned for the company’s Leverkusen, Dormagen, Krefeld-Uerdingen and Brunsbuettel sites, will directly affect around 1,400 employees.

“This agreement is a first important step in a flexible, costs compatible and targeted response to the current decline in demand and the drop in orders,” explained Rainier van Roessel, labour relations director and member of the Lanxess Board of Management. Werner Czaplik, chairman of the Lanxess Central Works Council, added: “The new agreements ensure that uniform arrangements apply at all sites and business units of Lanxess if facilities are temporarily shut down.”

In the case of plant shutdowns, the company intends, among other things, that employees reduce positive balances on their time accounts accordingly or use part of their annual vacation. Where these options are already exhausted, employees will be permitted to debit hours from their individual time accounts and bring them back into balance by working extra hours at a later time.