Instead of promised 3,400 workers, Johnson Electric to have 1,550 employees – Company has to return close to EUR 1 billion of subsidy

There have been promises by representatives of the authorities, as well as the company, that the Johnson Electric factory in Nis will employ no fewer than 3,400 workers, which was also stipulated in the Incentive Agreement signed in 2016, by which the state approved 19.2 million. However, this agreement has been changed several times, the number of the promised workers has reduced, and it was most recently changed at the end of 2024. Johnson Electric has thereby obliged to have at least 1,550 workers by the end of 2027, but also to return nearly a million euros of its subsidy.

And while, last week, Johnson Electric announced that they had not given proposals of voluntary termination of labor contracts for 300 workers, that this company plan to reduce the number of employees is shown by the Contract they had signed with the Ministry of Economy in December 2024.

As said in the agreement, Johnson Electric addressed the Ministry in August and October 2024 with “the request for a change of the obligations under contract and the maintaining of the total number of employees in the Period of Guaranteed Investment and Employment, due to the changed circumstances.” That practically means that this company is not able to meet the obligations, which, in 2016, were to “permanently” employ no fewer than 3,400 workers, but which were reduced in 2021 to a minimum of 2,200 employees.

They oblige to not reduce the number of employees below 1,550 and to pay a salary in the amount of the minimum wage augmented by at least 20% to each employee in the Period of Guaranteed Investment and Employment, from December 31, 2022, until December 31, 2027.

Because it couldn’t fulfill its part of the agreement, the company, according to the agreement, is obliged to return a part of the subsidy paid to it by the state, in the amount of EUR 965,766.

Johnson Electric doo Niš

Johnson Electric Niš

Aleksandar Vučić

layoffs at Johnson Electric