Infineon details short-time work regime

Infineon details short-time work regime

LONDON – German chip company Infineon Technologies AG has provided more details of the short-time work regime referenced during the presentation of its fourth fiscal quarter financial results.

Although Infineon (Munich, Germany) had seen slowing economic development generally, the production capacity for high power modules at its Warstein production site in Germany is the only site so far asked to adapt for lower demand.

In an email response to questions from EE Times a spokesperson for Infineon said that working hours' cuts of between 10 and 30 percent were being made at that site. As of Oct. 1, 2012 short-time work was extended to all production lines at the Warstein site (excluding contract workers) and production-near functions such as purchasing department or logistics department. Today, 720 employees are affected by short-time work, the spokesperson said. This is out of a total of about 1,350 employees of Infineon Technologies AG at the Warstein site, including production, development, sales & marketing, administration.

Employees in R&D, marketing, sales and administration are not currently affected and the short-time work provision has been introduced for a maximum period of six months, Infineon said.

The spokesperson explained that although Infineon pays short-time workers' proportionately to the hours they work the German Federal Employment Agency helps to fill the gap and pays the difference up to about 60 percent of the lost pay.

When asked in email how extensive across Infineon short-time work might become the spokesperson replied: "Warstein is the only site with short-time work. At this point in time, there are no short-time work plans at other Infineon sites." The respondent went on to calculate that with 720 people affected out of a total of close to 26,700 employees (as of Sept. 30, 2012) about 2.7 percent of Infineon employees are on short-time work.


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TAG:Infineon Germany power Warstein semiconductor jobs