Vetropack Group confirms offer of talks on social plan for St-Prex

24.05.2024: The Vetropack Group, one of Europe's leading glass packaging manufacturers, is adhering to its plan to draw up a social plan for employees at the St-Prex site, despite a strike supported by the UNIA and SYNA trade unions. The Management Board already presented important key points to the workforce last week. Vetropack is now calling on employee representatives and trade unions to act in the best interest of the employees, end the strike, and continue the talks that have already begun.

“We reaffirm our willingness to talk to employee representatives and trade unions about the social plan currently being prepared,” explains CEO Johann Reiter. “We struggle to understand why the trade unions are now unilaterally supporting a strike, which will significantly delay the completion of the social plan.”

The Vetropack Group announced on May 14 that it would have to cease glass production in St-Prex for economic reasons by the end of August 2024. As a result of the closure, redundancies at the site are unavoidable, which is why the Management Board is preparing a social plan for employees. In addition to severance payments, this plan also provides for bonuses and benefits for early retirement. A dedicated job centre will further support employees affected by redundancies and place them in new jobs.

“The strike is in no way helping to move this process forward and will possibly prevent the benefits provided for in the social plan from being available to employees when redundancies start to take effect,” says Johann Reiter. “Therefore, we can only urge the employee representatives and trade unions to resume talks with us in a responsible manner.”

Customer supply secure until further notice

The strike is affecting both production and the warehouse in St-Prex but will not impact customer supply over the next days. If the strike persists, Vetropack will work on a solution to secure the supply of customers from other sites.