Chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut has announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs at various sites, including at the largest chocolate factory in the world, in what unions have said comes as a "cold shower".
In a joint communication with other trade unions, the socialist trade union BBTK announced that the company is looking to cut more than 500 jobs in Belgium as part of a global restructuring. In total, the operation will affect 2,500 jobs and will force the closure of a factory in Germany.
In its East Flanders sites Wieze, where it operates the largest chocolate factory in the world and employs some 1,200 people, and Lokeren, where 120 are employed, the company wants to cut 250 clerical jobs and 62 blue-collar jobs in total, according to the ACV union.
In the Flemish Brabant town of Halle, with 400 workers, the changes would affect about 160 workers and 50 white-collar workers. However, Kurt Marysse of the liberal trade union ACLVB told Belga News Agency that there are talks of a lower number of 178 threatened jobs.
The company responded to Belga via a written statement, in which it confirms that there is a "BC Next Level" plan to cut costs by 15%, "which could affect 2,500 positions worldwide over the next 18 months". The aim is mainly to "eliminate duplication and inefficiencies".
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Barry Callebaut has launched this 'Renault procedure' for collective redundancies but stresses that the factories in Halle and Wieze "remain very important factories" and that the intention is to continue making Belgian chocolate there.
Unions criticised the fact the "true social carnage" comes just one week after "an enthusiastic presentation of economic and financial information at the chocolate giant." According to BBTK, most of the clerical positions that are being lost in East Flanders are moving to Poland and Malaysia.
Staff meetings are scheduled during the afternoon and a European works council will take place in the coming days. While the unions still hope to reduce the job losses, trade unionists at BBTK said "chances are the atmosphere will be very tense".
