The measures are being proactively implemented to adjust costs due to the weaker market demand that was experienced during the third quarter and that persisted into the fourth quarter, the company said in a statement.
“In addition to the ongoing improvement efforts at Sandvik Mining, a reduction of 650 employees globally has been deemed necessary, including the closure of the units in North Bay, Canada, and Rocklea, Australia,” Sandvik said.
“Third-party contracts with more than 350 individuals will be terminated.
“Although we have closed the Rocklea site a large number of those employees were relocated to our Qantas Drive site.”
Thirty-six workers at Heatherbrae will reportedly be offered voluntary redundancy by Monday after 80 labour hire positions were axed last month , unions are reported as saying in the Newcastle Herald.
A spokesperson for the company told ILN that there were inaccurate reports about numbers to be retrenched.
“There were a total of 73 retrenchments in Australia, over a number of sites around the country - out of 2100 employees - so just under 3.5% of the total,” he said.
This reduction is equally split between white collar and blue collar workers, according to Sandvik.
“Sandvik Mining is currently following a consultation process with the unions in respect to any redundancies in Heatherbrae,” the company said.
Sandvik’s Heatherbrae site combines the manufacture, assembly, supply and support of a wide range of surface and underground coal mining equipment.
It integrated a number of Sandvik Mining’s NSW facilities into a single operation, and is one of the company’s largest manufacturing, assembly, distribution and after-market service centres.
The facility covers 16 hectares, including 4ha for expansion, and has a total of 28,000sq.m under cover. Around 600 employees and contractors worked at the site, with capacity for a further 150. A total of 20 offsite specialist manufacturing contractors will also supply Sandvik.
When it opened in March, the company said its total turnover for the Hunter region would be between $200-300 million, including manufacturing, repairs, rebuilds, refurbishments, after-market and spare parts.
