TROUBLED engineering company PPS Detva has announced plans to lay off nearly 1,000 employees. New PPS director general Igor Chapman said on April 29 that out of nearly 1,200 employees, only 280 will be needed at the plant, which makes machine tools.
The announcement came the first day employees returned to work after more than a month-long shutdown due to suspension of the company's electricity supply.
In late March, the board of directors at PPS resigned after failing to pay employee wages from January and losing a Supreme Court case on the legality of a transfer of assets from the heavily-indebted company to a new daughter company, PPS Detva Holding, in 1997.
Union officials estimate that in its four-year history, PPS Holding ran up debts of nearly Sk1 billion to utilities, insurance companies, banks and suppliers.
New management for the company was announced on April 18, and began work on April 30.