Samsung closes its Galanta plant

South Korean firm Samsung announced that it will close its Voderady plant in April, where it employs 1,600 workers in display production. Samsung will keep its other Slovak plant in Galanta (2,500 workers and €2.8bn in sales in 2016), partly because the plant is still receiving €19.8m in state investment incentives. The company explains its decision as the result of labor shortages. Both plants have relatively low value added and a dramatic wage hike is therefore not an option. Samsung will try to move 600 workers from Voderady to Galanta. The remaining staff in Voderady were hired through a recruitment agency, and a substantial part of them are from Serbia. They are likely to lose their jobs.

(SME/1)