Roughly 1,000 Samarco employees have joined a company’s voluntary dismissal program (PDV), according to a media report.
The company expected to layoff 1,200 workers through the initiative, but only 923 have joined the program. Samarco is now evaluating the measures it should take to adjust its workforce.
The company had initially planned a Q4 start-up for its operations, but then postponed its start-up for 2016. Media reports said it couldn’t resume activities in 2017 either.
Credit rating agency Fitch said Samarco could resume activities until H2 2017, adding it could soon run out of cash.
Out of the 923 workers who joined the company’s voluntary dismissal program, 455 worked at Samarco’s unit in the state of Espirito Santo, where it has a pelletizing unit, and the other 468 in the state of Minas Gerais.