Luxottica Starts Temp Layoffs For 6,000 Amid Recession

Italian luxury eyewear maker Luxottica SpA (LUX.MI) will start a four-day temporary layoff that will affect about 6,000 workers in six factories across northern Italy, as economic turmoil takes its toll on the luxury sector, Italian union FILTEA-CGIL said Thursday.
"In some factories there could be more days," Belluno FILTEA-CGIL regional leader Giuseppe Colferai told Dow Jones Newswires.

Luxottica is the world's largest eyewear maker by sales and makes fashionable sunglasses for the likes of Prada and Chanel. The government sponsored layoffs will affect factories located in the Belluno, Treviso, Trento and Torino and will be implemented in increments of two days in January and February, leather, textile and shoe union FILTEA-CGIL said.
Layoffs are beginning to take place throughout the nation, after Italy entered recession in the third quarter of 2008.

Carmaker Fiat SpA (F.MI) said earlier this month that it will lay off about 2,000 office workers for the first two weeks of February, which acts as a sort of insurance against unemployment, allowing the car maker to pay its employees most of their salary with state money.
Conforama, a furniture retailer belonging to French retail-to-luxury group PPR SA (12148.FR) said last month that it plans to reorganize its Italian and Spanish operations and cut 430 jobs in Italy because of the worsening economic crisis.

Economists expect Italy's recession to deepen into 2009 and Italy's largest business lobby, Confindustria, said it expects the employment rate to soar to 8.4% in 2009, from 6.8% in 2008.
Italy is the largest exporter of clothing, textiles and shoes in the 27-member European Union.
Italy's textile, leather, shoe and eyewear industry leaders have recently formed a united front to ask the government to help sustain jobs, salaries and investments, as the global economic turmoil continues.

Company Web site: www.luxottica.it



Source : EasyBourse
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]