Dismissals in Saeby and Ringsted will be more than halved
It has been three weeks since the board of Danish Crown recommended that 275 employees should be made redundant at the slaughterhouse in Saeby. During those weeks, employee representatives and managers worked to find solutions that could reduce the number of employees who had to be discharged.
And it has succeeded very well, as the number of redundancies in Saeby drops from the original 281 to 121 employees being made redundant.
"We have succeeded in getting more production into our day shift in the form of ham production. This is solely due to a strong collaboration between the employee representatives, who have been open to solutions, and our sales and planning department, who have been quick to explore opportunities for the new ham production," says Jesper Sørensen, factory manager in Saeby.
The majority of the reduction in the number of redundancies in Saeby comes from the employees at the slaughterhouse having to take a 15-minute more break each day. It also extends their working day by 15 minutes, but it is without a knife in hand.
By extending the working day with a fifteen-minute longer break, production capacity can be increased because the lines are less idle, as the breaks are staggered, and thus replacements can be made on the lines during the breaks.
The proposal for a 15-minute longer working day in the break room was sent to a vote among the employees, where 86% voted in favor.
"In an unfortunate situation where there was the prospect of losing 281 colleagues, we are happy that by taking an extra fifteen-minute break every day and thus extending the working day, we can save so many jobs here in Saeby. I am also happy that it was a clear majority from the colleagues, so there is agreement that it is the right solution," says Jens Hansen, who is the trade union representative at the slaughterhouse in Saeby.
At the slaughterhouse in Ringsted, it was planned that 75 employees would be dismissed, but here factory manager Steffen Ahrendsen, after negotiations with the employee representatives, ended up having to dismiss 25 employees now and then.
Steffen Ahrendsen says that this is due, among other things, to the fact that some have resigned voluntarily, and others have been moved to other functions at the slaughterhouse.
The employees who are being made redundant at the slaughterhouses in Saeby and Ringsted have in common that there is a great demand for the employees from other local companies who have reached out to Danish Crown, both factory managers said.
Pork exports totaled 272,141 metric tons (mt) in November, up 5% from a year ago, while export va...
Revenue generated by shipments reached US$ 238.2 million in 2024, a balance 0.8% lower compared t...
A record was also recorded with export revenues between January and December 2024, reaching US$ 9...
