Greece: The Labour Inspectors' Corps has fined AGET Heracles cement industry, a subsidiary of Lafarge Group, Euro7500 for violating mass lay-offs legislation after ruling in favour of former employees recently laid off from its cement plant in Halkida and essentially shutting down the plant.
By closing the unit and laying-off 236 employees, the industry was found in violation of article 4 of Presidential Decree 240/2006 according to which, employees have to be notified and consulted in advance. The cement industry had said that it proceeded with the shutdown of its unit in Halkida due to financial reasons and as a result of the plunge in domestic construction activity and after failing to distribute its surplus production to international markets.
