March 7 (SeeNews) - Canada-based automotive manufacturer Magna International halted production activities at its Slovenian paint factory in the municipality of Hoce-Slivnica on March 6, Slovenian media reported.
The 90 employees engaged in production will no longer return to work at the factory as Magna decided to relocate the activities to Austria's Graz, public broadcaster RTV reported on Monday.
The employees will be interviewed by the company, and those who show interest will be offered work within the group, while a redundancy programme will be prepared for others, RTV reported.
"They are experienced, qualified workers. I believe that it will be possible for them to find new jobs," RTV quoted the mayor of Hoce-Slivnica, Marko Sorsak, as saying.
Last week, Slovenian economy minister Matjaz Han said Magna representatives informed the government that the company plans to set up a support and development centre for its other locations in Hoce-Slivnica.
Slovenia's government will demand Magna to repay 18.5 million euro ($19.7 million) of state aid as it never fulfilled its intention to employ 400 people in the first phase of the development of the factory and then an additional 1,000 people, he added.
The company opened the Hoce-Slivnica factory in July 2019 after investing 146.4 million euro in the project. Back in October 2017, Magna said that the project will complement production at the Magna Steyr plant in Graz, situated some 75 km from Hoce-Slivnica, which was overloaded. Production at Magna's factory in Hoce-Slivnica has been suspended on several occasions since the beginning of 2020 due to interrupted supply chains.
($ = 0.93746 euro)