Nokia is to close its Jyväskylä site in Finland and concentrate mobile devices R&D in Finland at Tampere, Oulu, Salo and Helsinki. At the same time, it is to scale down Salo production with temporary lay-offs, but insists operations there will continue uninterrupted.
Nokia says it will begin consultations with employee representatives about these plans, which are part of Nokia's already announced plans to cut and "safeguard future competitiveness". The company is seeking savings in operational expenses, looking at all areas and activities, it said.
Nokia's operations in Jyväskylä focus mainly on mobile device product development and marketing. Nokia plans to wind down the site and close it by the end of 2009 with the loss of 320 jobs.
'The planned closure of the Jyväskylä site is an unfortunate, yet unavoidable measure. We must adjust our resources to reflect reduced market demand in order to maintain our competitiveness also in the future,' says Peter Røpke, Senior Vice President, Devices R&D, Nokia.
The scaled down production in Salo will be implemented through temporary lay-offs in rotation, with between 20% to 30% of employees - about 2,500 workers - affected at any one time.
Nokia is also starting consultations with employees' representatives regarding the redundancy of another 60 employees in global support functions and 30 employees in the New Businesses unit within Services.