That's how fast it goes!

After sales growth, the Group now cuts 450 jobs

(Bild: APA/AFP/Tobias SCHWARZ)

The Schaeffler Group is cutting 450 jobs in Berndorf. The jobs are moving to cheaper foreign countries. In August, the company was still reporting a "successful financial year".

Plants of the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler in Slovakia, Romania and China are to take over the production from Lower Austria, which will be discontinued by the end of 2025. It is no consolation that the jobs cut in Berndorf only account for 10 percent of the announced job cuts in Europe.

Alarm signal for coalition negotiators
Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Governor of Lower Austria, therefore sees the news from the German headquarters as "bad news" and says that the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) in Lower Austria must now provide the best possible support for those affected. And she also holds the future federal government to account: "This alarm signal must reach the negotiators in Vienna."

The solutions that have been proposed so far are certainly no longer sufficient. A fundamental reform of economic policy is unavoidable.

Helmut Schwarzl, Spartenobmann der Industrie in der WKNÖ

Bild: Josef Bollwein

Costs and bureaucracy are the main problems
Representatives of the business community are sounding the same note. Both Kari Ochsner, President of the Federation of Austrian Industry in Lower Austria, and Helmut Schwarzl, Head of Division at the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKNÖ), see high energy and personnel costs as the main problem affecting industry in this country. The "overwhelming bureaucracy" is also making life increasingly difficult for domestic companies. And the past has shown that once production sites and jobs have been lost, it is difficult - and in most cases impossible - to get them back.

"A blow for the location"
The Freedom Party in Lower Austria is also calling for a "180-degree turnaround in economic policy". The closure of the Schaeffler plant in Berndorf is the next blow for Lower Austria as a business location, says Michael Sommer, economic spokesman for the FPÖ in the state parliament. "

Track record in the previous year
It is remarkable that in August, the business press service reported: "Schaeffler Austria is busily turning the sales screw". It reported a turnover of 241.9 million euros last year, an increase of 2.5 percent compared to 2022. The bottom line: a "successful financial year".