The Singapore-based electronics company Flextronics has hired 900 new employees at its plant in Zalaegerszeg (W Hungary), the newspaper Zalai Hirlap reported on Friday.
The company hired the new workers as a result of a recent increase in orders, notably for a new generation mobile telephone.
Flextronics currently employs 4,900 people at the plant, 1,000 more than at the beginning of the summer.
The company laid off nearly 1,000 workers at the beginning of 2009 but announced new hires late spring and the early summer.
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So instead of “Hire and fire” this time around it is “Fire and hire” – wonder when they’ll return to the old strategy…
These companies all seem to operate on very short-term planning, what a waste!
It’s not a question of planning, Wolfi, it’s a question of whether the money is there. Companies depend on contracts with clients to make money, and without these contracts, they cannot pay their employees. Factor in that, in most parts of the world outside Europe (especially the USA), firing is easier because job security is far less protected, then frequent major global changes in workforce numbers make perfectly sound business sense.
What’s the alternative? Force companies out of business by making them keep employees on and paying them money they don’t have. Now that would be a waste…
I work in a similar business. Everything is driven
by customer demand. We also laid off lots of workers
earlier in the year and hiring them back now because
customer demand picks up. In the current uncertain
international economy long term planning is all very
well but you have to survive.
@TDS and Benny:
There are alternatives. In Germany it is common for workers to go on a 4 day working week (for example Volkswagen did this for many years) or to give the workers a month of unpaid leave, so the loss in income is distributed over many people – I know this would be difficult in countries like Hungary where it is almost impossible to live on just one wage…
I know that most people need a second job or at least some extra paid work over the weekend, like our neighbours who did some repairs to my house…
In Germany some workers also do overtime without getting paid immediately, they accumulate the hours for a time when the company does not have enough orders for a full occupation.