UPM's «From Job to Job» programme proceeds

Oct 27, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. Good progress is being made with UPM’s From Job to Job redeployment and employee support programme, which was launched to relieve the impacts of the Voikkaa mill closure. Since last spring, over 300 of the mill’s 678 employees have found a new job or training position. A total of 73 employees have joined the retirement scheme. Production ceased at the mill in the summer, but salary payments will continue until the end of the term of notice in December 2006. “The proactive, forward-looking attitude of the employees has contributed very positively to their redeployment and relocation,” says Aki Kohonen, production unit director at the Voikkaa mill. So far, over 70 employees have found new positions within UPM, mainly in Finland, but also in Canada, Great Britain and China. More than 140 have been employed outside the company. UPM is paying entrepreneurial start-up support to nine applicants, and 29 employees are in vocational retraining. In addition, around 60 employees will stay on at Voikkaa until the end of 2007. Their duties will include property maintenance and dismantling of paper machines. Empower Oy has hired over 50 Voikkaa employees for its new unit offering forest industry maintenance services based at the mill site. The unit opened in September, and the company has announced that it will hire more employees later in the year after demand levels are determined. Kouvola Cargo Handling, a storage services company also operating from the mill site, will hire 20 Voikkaa employees, ten of whom have already started work. UPM is currently negotiating with various other companies planning to set up business at the mill site.