Romanian bearing manufacturer, SC Rulmenti SA Barlad (a 91% owned division of Kombassan Holding, Turkey) will be boosting its workforce by approximately 100 over the next several months.

The company had put 800 of its over 2,000 workers on full unemployment layoff, and shut the plant for a week in March after sales fell rapidly in this recession. Approximately 100 will be brought back from full layoff to what is essentially half layoff.

Workers have been running the plant on a rotating schedule. Each month, half of the active employees are working, and the other half are laid off, collecting 75% of their pay. The next month, the second group is working and the first group is laid off and collecting unemployment.

The rotating unemployment scheme is financially supported by the Romanian government, and allows the state to claim lower unemployment than if the true numbers were tallied. After the callbacks, claimed unemployment will be down to 700.

Rulmenti Barlad said they expect demand to start picking up, approximately 20% over the next few months, putting the factory at nearly 65% capacity utilization.

Rulmenti Barlad is a subsidiary of Turkish industrial conglomerate Kombassan Holding, which acquired the company from the Romanian Privatization Agency in June of 2000.

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