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CONSTRUCTION

New Swedish lay offs at Volvo Group

Volvo Construction Equipment (CE), part of Sweden’s Volvo group, announced on Thursday that 850 more employees would be laid off in Sweden.

Published: 23 October 2008 17:08 CEST
New Swedish lay offs at Volvo Group

The new cuts come on top of the 500 redundancies the company announced earlier this autumn.

Volvo cited a worldwide slow-down in the construction equipment market, which has been worsened by the current financial crisis, as the cause of the job cuts.

“The actions we are taking now are needed in order to adjust production capacity to declining demand and to ensure that the company is coming out stronger from this downturn,” said the president of Volvo CE’s Hauler Loader Business Line, Yngve Rosén, in a statement.

Blue collar labourers make up nine out of ten of the workers to be given notice in the new round of cutbacks.

The company said that all of Volvo CE’s Swedish locations will be affected and that negotiations with unions would be started immediately.

Of the blue collar positions to be eliminated, 200 workers will be laid off in Arvika, Braås, and Eskilstuna, while 150 employees in Hallsberg will lose their jobs.

The company has not yet determined how the white collar redundancies will be distributed.

PROPERTY

Copenhagen nature area to be developed as city approves land sale

A part of the Amager Fælled nature area has lost its reserve status and can now be sold to investors, after a majority in the city's municipal council voted in favour of development on Thursday.

Published: 5 February 2021 12:42 CET
Copenhagen nature area to be developed as city approves land sale
Amager Fælled. File photo: Asger Ladefoged/Ritzau Scanpix

The 219,000 square-kilometre area, known as Lærkesletten, can be sold to developers who wish to build homes on the land, broadcaster TV2 reported.

The sale raises money needed by the city to pay for the new Metro lines, which opened last year, and was part of a political deal agreed in 2017.

City councillors from the Social Democrats, Social Liberals, Liberals, Conservatives, Danish People's Party and two independents voted in favour, while Red-Green Alliance, Alternative and Independent Green parties and one independent opposed.

Located on the southern edge of the natural area on island Amager, the area is frequently used by people from the city for cycling, running and walking.

“We have seen that nature and the environment are at the centre of the public’s perception of what’s important. They want real wild nature in Denmark,” Gorm Anker Gunnarsen, who represents the Red-Green Alliance on the city council, told news agency Ritzau.

An Epinion survey this week showed that 76 percent of people who live in Copenhagen are either partly or completely against development of the area.

Gunnarsen told Ritzau he still believes there is a chance of preserving the nature zone.

“We have the authority to withdraw a building permit in special circumstances,” he said.

An advisory public vote could on the matter provide the basis for this, he argued.

“This case will not then just rest on which party you are with, but also on your view of the individual case,” he said.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen natural area Amager Fælled gets new development plan

 

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