Dan Cook, CEO of Lyten, was in Skellefteå on Friday. He is confident that they will succeed in getting Northvolt’s former operations back on their feet – and then develop them further
The American company Lyten is buying Northvolt’s bankrupt operations in Skellefteå. In a press release last Thursday, the new owners announced that they intend to “immediately resume” operations and that they “plan to rehire a significant portion of the previously laid-off staff.”
The transaction is expected to be completed in October. While the new owners have expressed their intent to rehire, the timeline remains unclear.
– We will start rehiring in the near future. I will talk to the team about who and when, but we definitely plan to hire as soon as we’ve closed the deal.
That's according to Lyten CEO Dan Cook, who also told Norran that the workforce will “scale up to thousands” without providing a specific timeline. Cook added:
– The question now is: what should we do between now and the takeover regarding employment? I’ll check with my team to see what they recommend, he said last week.
According to IF Metall's union lawyer Ellinor Gudmundsson, the right of priority applies regardless of whether hiring begins before or after the new owner takes over. This means that those who previously worked for Northvolt are first in line, even though a new company has taken over after a bankruptcy.
– The right of priority for re-employment is regulated in the Employment Protection Act, LAS, Gudmundsson states.
To be eligible for priority, the employee must have worked for the company for at least 12 months during a 36-month period and must have notified their employer that they wish to exercise this right.
– The normal procedure is that you receive notice of your right of priority upon termination and then decide whether you want to claim it or not, Gudmundsson says.
What if you haven't done that—can you claim it afterwards? For example, if you were never asked?
– If the employer does not inform you that you need to claim your right of priority, then I understand that you still retain the right.
A prerequisite for having the right of priority, in addition to the length of employment, is that you have the right skills for the role to be filled.
– And if there are multiple people claiming the right of priority for the same job, it is their total length of employment that determines who is first in line, says Gudmundsson, who also notes that the right applies for nine months after the employment ended.
Åsa Etelämäki, from IF Metall in Skellefteå.
Union representative Åsa Etelämäki from IF Metall’s Skellefteå office welcomed the news of a new buyer and expressed hope that many former Northvolt workers would return.
– Hopefully everyone who wants to and can will have the chance to return.
Etelämäki also stressed the importance of a collective agreement with the new owner.
– I hope the new owner understands how important it is to have a collective agreement. Both for the company’s competitiveness and for the employees, but also to be able to collaborate with other local companies. This is the model we have in Sweden, and it’s something we must protect.
When asked for details on the rehiring process, Anna Cohen Wikström, HR manager at Northvolt Ett, said:
– We are not ready to share any information yet about this.