Spain Business Brief - Friday October 3 2008

Spain Business Brief - Friday October 3 2008
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By h.b. - Oct 3, 2008 - 1:15 PM

Seat cars on the Zona Franca in Barcelona - Photo EFE

Seat announces job losses because of reduced sales.

Seat has announced the closure of production lines which will affect 4,700 workers as the company responds to lower sales in the face of the economic crisis. The company wants to cut production to 21,000 cars this year.
The company has applied to lay off 750 workers from November to the following July, with the other workers, about half of those in the company, being affected by what is being called production stops. Talks on the details of these are now underway with the unions.

The Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has been reported in the Spanish media today of requesting daily reports on the health of the Spanish banking system from his Minister for Tax and the Economy, Pedro Solbes.
Despite the reported strength of the Spanish banks the Government is understood to have a rescue plan in place for any bank which does find itself in difficulty.

Meanwhile reports indicate that Europe is not that keen on establishing a Europe-wide rescue plan. Only Holland has come out in favour of a grand fund for banks in problems.
Meanwhile Sarkozy has organised a mini-summit on the problem with Trichet, Merkel and Brown. It comes with the news that France will enter recession in the next quarters after 15 years of growth.

The Bank of Spain has fined the company ‘Capital Money Transfer’ for failing to meet external audit obligations of its current accounts, according to the Official State Bulletin (BOE) published today. The management team of the company are thus banned from office for any financial business for three years following the faults described as ‘very serious’.

Spain could be affected by a debate in Brussels today which is proposing that maternity leave across the continent be set at 18 weeks. Currently the amount in Spain is 16 weeks.

Mobile phone company Movistar has cancelled the facturas from a Granada man who ran up a bill for 6,400 € connecting to the internet while in Portugal.
The client thought the connection would be treated as part of his ‘tarifa plana’ flat rate for internet use.
Consumer association FACUA acted for the man, named as Jorge H.H. saying that many others had been caught out by the fact that the phone company had failed to inform them about the conditions of the deal.
Telefónica then decided to cancel the factura, despite earlier refusing to do so.

Staying with things phones, Nokia has announced that it has chosen Spain to launch its new tactile phone, being seen as an answer from the Finnish company to the iphone. The 5800 Xpressmusic goes on sale on December 1, complete with tactile screen and with the idea of attracting a younger market. Price will be 279 € mas IVA.

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