Rieter plans further job cuts
Keystone-SDA
Textile machinery manufacturer Rieter is to cut more than 10% of its workforce in Switzerland. This latest restructuring is the latest in a long series for the Zurich-based group, which saw its revenues fall by almost half in the first half of 2024.
Rieter is continuing to reduce its workforce, according to a statement issued by the Swiss Employees Union on Friday. The group based in Winterthur, in the canton of Zurich, plans to shed 10% of its staff in Switzerland. “The measure affects 74 employees, 14 of whom have already resigned,” a union spokesperson told the AWP news agency, adding that the consultation process with employee representatives had begun.
+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The textile machinery manufacturer has already gone through several phases of layoffs and restructuring over the past five years. In the first half of the year, 13% of jobs had already been cut.
The union “expects Rieter’s management to assume its social responsibilities and ensure that all decisions are implemented with the greatest possible respect for the employees concerned”. It also demands that particular attention be paid to the proposals of employee representatives, and that all alternatives to the planned redundancies be examined.
Rieter saw its sales fall by 44% year-on-year to CHF421 million in the first half of 2024. A year ago, the company launched a savings program called Next Level to avoid falling into the red. In total, the Group has 5,300 full-time positions.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ac
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
