The Yazaki Company, which has made the biggest Japanese greenfield investment in Serbia, has started to lay off workers from its Šabac factory despite announcing expansion plans in late 2020.
Yazaki was founded in 1929, and today it operates in 45 countries and employs almost 250,000 people in four continents. The produces and distributes electrical systems, electronic instruments and car cables for the automotive industry.
Yazaki opened a production plant in Šabac in September 2017, and the opening ceremony was attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, the then Minister of Economy, Goran Knežević, President of Yazaki Corporation, Shinji Yazaki, and former Šabac Mayor Nebojša Zelenović.
The construction of the Yazaki factory, which spans 30,000 square metres, began in 2016. The company then committed to investing about EUR 25 million in Serbia and employing 1,700 workers.
At the opening, the president of Yazaki Corporation claimed both the local authorities and the workers would benefit greatly from the new factory.
However, last Friday, about 60 workers from the first shift and the same number from the second shift were fired.
The company still did not divulge the reasons for laying off 120 workers and have refused to take calls from the media. Nova journalists also contacted the company’s branch in Germany, asking for reasons for the layoffs, but received no answer in return.
Only a few hours after Nova published the article about workers being laid off on its social media, people started commenting about the mistreatment of workers in Yazaki’s factory in Šabac.
Also, the ogledalofirme.com website, where people leave information about working conditions and salaries in companies across Serbia, one of the comments, made on July 19th, said that Yazaki suffers from inadequate work organization and has insolent and rude team leaders.
In late 2020, the mayor of Šabac, Aleksandar Pajić, met with Yazaki’s representatives who told him that the company planned to expand its production capacity in Šabac and it planned to stay in Serbia at least for another 15 years.
According to the unofficial information, Yazaki plans to lay off up to 600 workers from its Šabac factory.
(Nova, 31.07.2021)
https://nova.rs/vesti/biznis/jazaki-kompanija-koja-je-dobila-najbolje-uslove-a-sad-otpusta-radnike/
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