The notification affects 300 employees at SKF throughout Sweden, where the company has 3,200 employees - of which just over 1,500 are employees.

SVT revealed a couple of weeks ago that SKF received advance notice of layoff support, for 1,500 people in Gothenburg, despite the company paying a dividend of SEK 1.3 billion.

A United Finance Committee had previously formulated that companies that distribute dividends would not be entitled to state crisis support. The Director General of the Growth Agency was then called up to the Finance Committee, and after this meeting she announced that there would now be a stop on laying off support for companies that distributed money to the shareholders.

SKF then responded immediately with raising 1,500 layoffs, and withdrew its application for support.

"Two reasons for the alert"

In their comments today, SKF management is happy to talk about causes other than the canceled support:

- So there are two reasons for the warning. First and foremost, we need to adapt to lower demand - during the last two weeks of March, demand fell by 25 percent compared to last year. And then it is also about a skills development that is already underway in the company. Because of the current situation, we need to accelerate it, ”says Press Manager Theo Kjellberg.

The company's CEO, Alrik Danielsson previously told SVT that without the support, the company would absolutely have to discuss notice. This was also what happened today, even though it is currently a small number - 300 people. And the company makes no secret that the withdrawn support has played a role.

"Short-term permits were a way of bridging a short-term crisis, but with the support being withdrawn, and we now see a structurally declining demand, we have to adapt more quickly in the long term," says Theo Kjellberg.

Union negotiations

Negotiations are now underway with the union representatives. The company hopes that these will be ready in July. Only then do you know how the final outcome will be. Some are not affected, some are affected by other tasks and some are dismissed.

- This is a difficult but still necessary decision to ensure that SKF remains competitive. We have implemented a number of measures and cost savings to minimize the effect of the prevailing market situation, but unfortunately we must also make structural changes throughout the company, says Alrik Danielson, CEO of SKF, in an internal communication.