Sint-Truiden (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – U.S. firm Tenneco is offering gross bonuses to employees at its Sint-Truiden plant who voluntarily opt to leave, amid restructuring efforts.
The business anticipates being able to reduce staff as a result. Het Belang van Limburg reported this, and VRT NWS verified it. The number of employees the corporation plans to let go is unknown.
“A severance package was put forward at the time for people who wished to leave the company voluntarily.”
Tenneco in Sint-Truiden employs between 800 and 1,000 people, 600 of whom are blue-collar workers. Therefore, voluntary redundancies are compensated for by a gross bonus. “This depends on the employee’s seniority,”
Gueroui explains.
“I estimate it to be between €1,500 and €2,000 per year of service.”
The suggestion was given by management during a works council meeting two weeks ago, but the news has just recently surfaced. Nadia Gueroui, a union representative for ACV Metea in Belgium, attested to this.
“The reason for this arrangement is, of course, the poor economic situation,”
says Gueroui.
“Production is declining. The automotive sector has been struggling for some time. It’s been going through ups and downs, but the Sint-Truiden site doesn’t often have new orders or products to produce.”
Since Friday, the company has been on collective leave, and it will stay that way until August 11. Employees are required to identify whether they are open to quitting when they return from vacation.
“Interest forms were distributed last week. During the collective leave, staff can consider their options. They have until August 15th to submit the forms,”
said the union secretary.
Ultimately, it’s the company that will decide who can leave.
“That makes sense in a way,”
Gueroui responds.
“The employee can express their interest. The company will assess the skills needed to keep production running. It would be unwise to let go of unique roles.”
Gueroui currently has difficulty estimating whether many employees will sign up for the plan.
“I don’t know how warmly or coldly this will be received. At Tenneco, we still have a collective labor agreement for job security in effect until the end of this year. If people know something is coming, they might prefer to stay on board, because the compensation agreed upon afterward might be of a different magnitude.”
What impact might the downsizing have on Tenneco’s European operations?
The downsizing involves offering voluntary exit bonuses to reduce staff and follows earlier restructuring plans that aimed to eliminate approximately 480 jobs in Western Europe, including plant closures and transferring higher labor assemblies away from Sint-Truiden to other sites, focusing Sint-Truiden on more automated advanced component production.
This streamlining is meant to reduce structural costs and improve efficiency amid weak market conditions in Europe.
These actions are part of cost-cutting measures designed to reduce overhead and operational expenses, with Tenneco targeting millions in annual savings. For example, previous European restructurings were projected to deliver $60 million annually in cost savings following closures and operational shifts.
