Ex-Nokia workers to get €12m EU funding to help find new jobs
The European Union has set aside €12m to help hundreds of workers made redundant from Nokia and Flextronics get a new job.
The money, which comes from the EU's European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), will be spent in three European countries — Romania, Denmark, and Finland — to help former tech company employees get back into work.
Of the funding, €2.9m will be used to help 1,416 workers made redundant in Romania by Nokia and one of its suppliers, while a further €5.3m will go towards 1,000 staff who lost their job at Nokia's Salo factory. The factory, Nokia's last production facility in its Finnish homeland, was closed earlier this year with the loss of hundreds of jobs. The phone maker has made over 30,000 job cuts in 2012 alone.
The two groups of workers will receive EGF backing as a result of Nokia's production facilities being moved from Europe to Asia.
The funding will be put towards services including retraining, guidance on job hunting, careers advice, as well as help and financial assistance for any ex-Nokians who want to start their own businesses.
The EU will also stump up €1.3m for 153 people who lost jobs at Flextronics, a manufacturing company used by OEMs, with the money to be used for measures such as retraining.
All of the funding will need to receive approval from the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers before it can be allocated.