Friday February 27, 2009
Western Digital defers plans to retrench all workers
By JACK WONG
KUCHING: Western Digital has put on hold plans to lay off its 1,500 employees at its factory in the Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone.
The company said an interested buyer was keen to acquire the factory as a going concern with the existing staff.
The employees were informed of the latest development in a notice dated Feb 17 signed by Western Digital vice-president Datuk Don Blake.
Although the company did not name the buyer concerned, it is widely speculated to be the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi.
Western Digital (formerly Komag), the world’s second largest hard-disk drive maker, had announced last December that the Sarawak operations would close next month and all employees would be laid off.
It cited the sharp drop in demand for its products.
The high-tech firm has been in operation here for 13 years.
The company said that in the event of an acquisition, the closure of the factory and staff retrenchment would clearly become unnecessary.
“In view of that, our factory operations will continue to run as normal and all employees will continue to work as normal in their respective working areas and our last date of employment will be deferred to a later date that will be informed in due course,” it added.
Should the acquisition not materialise, the compensation package which the employees had accepted would still be applicable, with the exception that their last day of employment would be on a date to be determined.
The company promised to keep the employees informed on the latest developments.
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