News About Mass Layoffs At MAZ Is Provocation
By Elena Novozhilova
Belorusskie Novosty
The Minsk Automobile Factory (MAZ) is preparing for large-scale reductions among its staff. The internet site Expertby reported five thousand staff members to be possibly laid off.
The details were supposedly received from the Factory’s Wages Department as it has to implement this task. Mass reductions are linked to the oncoming change of ownership at the Factory.
“Reductions are to be made even before the factory is sold – it is the buyer’s condition. Therefore it is the present owner of MAZ that will be responsible for this unpopular decision,” said the source.
The news reported by Belorusskie Novosty was taken at MAZ as “rubbish” and “provocation”. Chief Executives also said that “the Factory increased the output and reductions have not been ever discussed in any form”.
With regard to a new owner in the future, they also said that this subject had been discussed for a long time, and there was not any reason to stir it up again. Even if Deripaska who is reportedly interested in the Belarusian factory was coming to Minsk, the Wages Department would not have any idea about it.
Moreover, MAZ executives said that the list of state enterprises to be privatised has not been released yet, and it is not clear whether MAZ will be included in it.
The Expertby journalists assumed that MAZ had been sold to Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. They thought that the thorough stock-take in the end of last year was an indication of this factory going on sale.
Journalist thought that Oleg Deripaska might be buying MAZ after they learnt the following details: the Factory’s management had been visiting the GAZ Factory that belongs to Deripaska in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; the Quality Director from the Zavolzhsky Engine Factory, a part of Deripaska’s empire, visited MAZ on 3 January; the Factory has been reportedly considering a new quality control system.
At the same time, Director of the State Property Fund Natalya Zhirnosek said to Interfax that “there have not been any proposals from the state institutions to reform such large enterprises as MTZ, MAZ, BelAZ, or BMZ”.
“The issue of reforming state-owned enterprises, including large ones, is being examined, but the final terms of privatisation depend on many factors,” she added.
Natalya Zhirnosek also said that the postponement in privatising the largest industrial enterprises in Belarus is explained by their efficiency and promising development programmes with available sources of funding.
“Our privatisation offers are being examined by the appropriate state institutions,” she said. She also noted that the list of enterprises to undergo privatisation in 2008 will be released in late February.