In November, 851 employees in Salmar received layoff notices. 103 of these work at Innovanor in Senja. Now it turns out that all of these can come to work also after the New Year. – It is very good news to bring out now before Christmas, or almost at Christmas. There are many who have worked very hard through the autumn to land work, says factory manager Jørn Tore Fjellstad. Factory manager at Innovanor, Jørn Tore Fjellstad, says not everyone is as lucky as them. Photo: Pål Hansen / news According to him, external contracts for slaughtering and fillet work over the winter saved the employees at Senja from redundancy. – We have saved a bit at Innovanor with some external contracts, but for Salmar in Frøya there are almost 750 people who will only do 30, 40 and 50 per cent work in the next few months. – Did the salmon companies go too hard when they sent out several hundred redundancies this autumn? – No, it was completely real, and it is real. At Senja, we were staffing up. The plan was to have 300 at the house by Christmas was the plan, but we had to withdraw the job advertisements and had to stop hiring. Hoping for a postponement of ground rent tax But now there will be no redundancies at Salmar’s factory in Senja. There will be far fewer redundancies in the salmon companies than announced, according to Dagens Næringsliv, which discussed the matter first. Lerøy is also laying off fewer workers than initially announced. – Could this be a signal that the salmon companies are giving up the fight against the ground rent tax? – No. We hope that it will be postponed and a more thorough job will be done, says Fjellstad. CEO of Salmar, Frode Arntsen, says they are continuously working to increase the level of activity. Photo: Jøte Toftaker / news The CEO of Salmar, Frode Arntsen, tells news that they have worked hard recently to get enough activity at the factories – Fortunately, we have put in place external slaughter fish and rental production at InnovaNor, which means good activity and no layoffs in January. At Frøya, the employees will start January with 2-3 days of work and redundancies for the rest of the week, which Arntsen thinks is regrettable. – We have not managed to obtain enough contracts yet. We are continuously working to increase the level of activity and we hope it will increase throughout the first quarter. The mayor of Senja, Tom Rune Elisussen, is relieved that there will be no redundancies in the seafood industry in the municipality. Photo: Linda Pedersen / news – Very positive The mayor of Senja municipality, Tom-Rune Elisussen, has previously expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s proposal for land rent tax. He is satisfied that Salmar now does not have to lay off as many people as initially announced. – It is a relief that you see no reason to take out the redundancies, and can continue as before. – Do you think it was just intimidation from the breeding companies? – No, it was a combination of several factors. Among other things, seasonal fluctuations. The second is the ground rent proposal from the government. Factory manager Fjellstad at Innovanor is happy that they have also received support from the mayor of the municipality. – It has been very positive. As mayor of a seafood municipality, with three fillet factories, it is clear that you stand behind it, he says. Parliamentary leader in the Center Party, Marit Arnstad, writes on Facebook: “It is very good that many people are still not made redundant in the farming industry. The government will go through the input that comes in the consultation and, among other things, adjust the so-called standard price, which has been criticized, so that it is taxed based on real prices, not the stock exchange price.”
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Salmar does not lay off anyone at the factory in Senja – several companies withdraw layoff notices – news Troms and Finnmark
