Massive lay-offs planned in Poland

Job centres across the country say that the number of mass lay-offs is mounting in Poland as the finance crisis bites deeper.

The state-owned banking giant PKO BP is intending to dismiss as many as 1722 employees. Group redundancies are also planned by the National Bank of Poland, amounting to 343 people.

According to data collatied by the job centre in Szczecin, north-western Poland, at the end of last year as many as 35 companies declared that they would make 1,500 workers redundant in the region in 2009.

In the Masovia region, central Poland which includes the capital Warsaw, a total of 10,500 employees will be dismissed from some 53 companies, including media group Agora S.A. and VOS LOGISTICS, as well as Thompson in Piaseczno and Porfetti Van Melle Polska in Rembertow, on the outskirts of Warsaw.

In recent weeks large smelting works have declared that they intend to reduce employment levels. Steel giant ArcelorMittal is to get rid off some 980 workers in total and a the smelting plant in Zawiercie, southern Poland will lose 300 workers.

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