Italian manufacturer Askoll Group is to close its factory in western Slovakia, ending over three decades of production in the country and leaving 77 people unemployed.
The company said that manufacturing at its plant in Potvorice, near Nove Mesto nad Vahom, would end on December 31. Production will then be transferred to Askoll’s facilities in Romania and China.
The factory makes electric motors used in household appliances, including washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers, for manufacturers such as Bosch, Whirlpool and Gorenje.
According to the company, employees at the site have worked there for an average of over 17 years.
Askoll stated that its parent company had decided to close the Slovak operation due to increasing tax and labour costs. It specifically cited the government’s fiscal consolidation measures, including a financial transaction tax, a higher corporation tax, and increased employee health insurance contributions, asserting that these had diminished the competitiveness of its Slovak plant.
However, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) claimed that the company’s problems began much earlier.
“In 2019, when there was no transaction tax, the company had approximately 350 to 400 employees. Since then, it has continuously reduced its workforce to the current level of only a few dozen employees. At the same time, during this period, the company repeatedly communicated that the operation in Potvorice would be closed,” Fico said.
According to the prime minister, Italian management dismissed the Slovak management of the company’s Slovak operation in May and handed the company’s operations to an HR employee. He said the company had also failed to report the mass redundancies to the local labour office in advance.
Fico noted that Askoll had faced problems abroad in the past, including the cancellation of operations in Italy. The Slovak operation has also struggled with revenue.
“It is therefore evident that the company in Potvorice was gradually scaled down over a long period as a result of declining production volumes, price pressures and the international relocation of manufacturing,” the prime minister said.
Fico added that more than 2,000 jobs were currently available in Nove Mesto nad Vahom and the surrounding area.
The opposition party Progressive Slovakia has repeatedly called on the government to address mass layoffs, claiming that 47 cases have been reported in the first half of this year, affecting 4,400 jobs. (The Slovak Spectator)