Although Finnish packaging group Huhtamaki (Espoo; www.huhtamaki.com) in December completed the job cuts at its plant in Alf / Germany – for previous coverage, see Plasteurope.com of 17.06.2013 – it increasingly looks like it will take quite some time until all the group’s cost saving measures are implemented. Of the 220 employees remaining at the plant, more than 60 have now commenced legal proceedings against the gradual lowering of their wages, as called for in the agreement hammered out by Huhtamaki and the workers’ unions.

Recent mediation effort did not yield any agreement. On the contrary, it increasingly looks like the issue will turn into a marathon of legal proceedings, since the cases will not – as originally thought – be grouped together and tried on the basis of one exemplary case, but will each be dealt with individually. The first lawsuits are due to be heard by a judge on early December, with all cases expected to have been brought to court by the end of 2015 at the earliest.

Ahead of the restructuring efforts, the plant in Alf – part of Huhtamaki’s Foodservice-Europe-Asia-Oceania business segment and specialised in the production of thermoformed food packaging such as plastic cups and bowls – had a workforce of 380. The Finnish group operates two other plants in Germany – in Ronsberg and Forchheim – part of its Flexibles and Films units respectively.