Afit

60 jobs
Number of planned job losses

Announcement Date

6 December 2006

Employment effect (start)

1 January 2007

Foreseen end date

31 December 2007

Description

Afit is a family-owned firm producing children's footwear. At present, the firm is in a favourable stage of the cycle. Due to an increased demand it is in a position to expand its production. Nevertheless, the owners decided to relocate part of the production to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) and to reduce the number of employees in Slovenia. In the beginning of 2006, Afit opened a production facility in BH, where it currently employs 60 people (mostly women). By the next year the company plans to double the number of employees in BH. Accordingly, it will decrease the number of employees in Slovenia by 60 people (from 300 to 240). Afit will also reduce the cooperation with its suppliers in Slovenia, which now produce exclusively for Afit and employ 50 people. For many Afit's workers it will be difficult to find a new job because 90% of them have only compulsory or vocational education and most of them are women at the age of over 40 (45%). The reasons for moving a part of production to BH are increased labour costs in Slovenia (a worker in BH costs a half of that in Slovenia) and changed legislation regarding employment of disabled people. This legislation introduced the so-called quota system for the employment of disabled people. According to the new law, Afit is requested to employ 17 disabled people or to pay a compensation of SIT 20 million (app. EUR 83,000; for comparison, this would be almost 40% of this year's profit of Afit) to the Fund for the Promotion of Employment of Disables Persons.

Sources

• 6 December 2006: Delo