Steelmaker agreesto suspend job cuts

ArcelorMittal, the multinational steelmaker based in Luxembourg, has agreed to suspend plans for hundreds of job cuts. The announcement followed talks between Lakshmi Mittal, the company's chief executive, and Antonio Tajani, the European commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship.

Tajani urged the company to wait until the Commission published its action plan for the steel industry, scheduled for June, before deciding on how it would restructure its sites at Liège, in Belgium, and Florange, in France, which employ about 3,000 staff. ArcelorMittal had announced plans to reduce the capacity of the two plants and cut hundreds of jobs, prompting widespread protests. Tajani said that Mittal had assured him that neither site would close completely and that any workers affected by the reduction in capacity could be transferred to other sites in the same group.

In a statement issued on Tuesday evening (19 February), Tajani said that ArcelorMittal's agreement to suspend restructuring plans until June was “a step in the right direction”.

A spokesman for Tajani said yesterday that the commissioner was “appealing to member states, European industry and trades unions to work together with the Commission to produce an ambitious plan for June and give the steel industry a chance”.