The local Nav office in Kirkenes has not received formal confirmation that the employees of Kimek will be dismissed on 31 May, as the final board decision will not be taken until Tuesday 30 May. Although there is still no final decision on layoffs, they are prepared for that to happen. – We are already on extra alert, says Nav leader in Sør-Varanger municipality, Hilde Michelsen, who has had a close dialogue with Kimek’s management recently. Recently, the Nav office in Kirkenes has been open every day, but so far they have had nothing more to do than normal. Michelsen says that if they receive formal confirmation that the shipyard is dismissing all employees after the Whitsun weekend, then they must be prepared to follow up those who need help. – Then we will have more people at work, and we will also get help from other Nav offices in our local area. So that we can answer the concerns people have. Nav leader in Sør-Varanger municipality, Hilde Michelsen, says that there were many who were worried when Sydvaranger Gruve AS was declared bankrupt in 2015. – Many people have large mortgages, says Michelsen. Photo: Privat Dependent on the Russian fishing fleet On Friday 12 May there was a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which said that all work, with the exception of emergency repairs, on Russian boats was prohibited. Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt (Ap) stated in the press release that the authorities expect Norwegian business to continue to comply with the sanctions against Russian vessels arriving in Norway. – I hope the reminder leads to more players contacting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for guidance and possible exceptions to the sanctions where there is a basis for it. The room for maneuver with Russia is getting smaller and smaller. It is easy to make mistakes, said Huitfeldt in the press release. 70 percent of the turnover of the cornerstone company in Kirkenes comes from the Russian fishing fleet in the Barents Sea. Greger Mannsverk says that they have been waiting for an answer from the authorities after 12 May, but so far no one has been able to give them an answer to the situation they are now in. – I think it is sad that the authorities are not getting the finger. It is terrible what is happening now, says Mannsverk, who believes that the foundations of Sør-Varanger society are being removed if there are no concrete and long-term measures before 30 May. – You don’t change a society in 14 days. Director of Kimek, Greger Mannsverk, says that they hope for a solution before the board meeting on 30 May, but if nothing happens by then, the employees will be made redundant. Photo: Kristina Kalinina / news 300 man-years may be affected It is not the first time that the community in Sør-Varanger has been affected by mass redundancies in a cornerstone company. In 2015, Sydvaranger Gruve AS went bankrupt and mining operations were discontinued. Between 350–400 employees then lost their jobs. Those experiences mean that Nav locally knows what awaits them if Kimek makes the employees redundant on the Tuesday after the Pentecost weekend. Although not as many are directly affected as in 2015, there are many other businesses that depend on operations at the shipyard in Kirkenes. As a result, up to 300 man-years in the local environment could be affected in the long term. – Kimek is an important company in the local community, and many people depend on their business, says Hilde Michelsen. Hilde Michelsen says that they will take care of those affected in the best possible way if Kimek makes the employees redundant on Tuesday 30 May. The Nav leader hopes that things will resolve themselves after the Whitsun weekend. – We hope for the best. Photo: Privat Wants to use experiences from the corona pandemic Kimek director Greger Mannsverk wants the government to help put in place a salary compensation scheme, so that they can continue the restructuring to find new market areas to replace the Russian fishing fleet. The NAV leader in Sør-Varanger municipality states that Nav can use salary compensation as a means of action, but that it must be decided politically. – We have experience with it from the corona pandemic, so we have the systems for this. It will therefore be quite quick to get it in place, says Hilde Michelsen, who adds that they did not know where the matter stood until the Whitsun weekend. – Even if Nav locally wants it, it is entirely up to others whether that instrument can be realised. Believe in a solution Leader of the LO in Troms and Finnmark, Bjørn Johansen, and the leader of the Federation, Jørn Eggum, believe that there will be a solution during Pentecost. Johansen tells frifagbevegelse.no that he feels that hard work is being done both centrally and locally to find a solution. Today there is a vessel on land and a vessel at the quay outside the shipyard in Kirkenes. Currently, these Russian fishing vessels cannot be completed due to the sanctions against Russia. – The urgent thing is to find a solution for Kimek, so that they can finish the work on the two boats lying there. They don’t disappear. The second is a wage compensation scheme, and there we are in dialogue with LO centrally. I am an optimist, says Johansen. – The matter is a high priority The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs news that they sent Kimek a preliminary answer on 22 May and that they aim to come up with a final answer as quickly as possible. – The matter has a high priority, writes communication adviser in the ministry, Guri Solberg, in an e-mail. Solberg states that for reasons of confidentiality, they cannot go into more detail about the processing of individual cases. – Activity and jobs in Eastern Finnmark are also important from a security policy perspective. That is why the Minister of Business and the Minister of Local Government were in Kirkenes on 16 May for meetings with the municipality and the business community. The government will quickly come back with new measures.
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– We are on extra alert – news Troms and Finnmark
