Motorola Semiconductor to lay off 800 staff

Hong Kong, Jan 7: Motorola Semiconductor will lay off almost half of the 1,500 workers at its Hong Kong factory, shifting their functions to plants in Malaysia and China, the company said on Monday.

The layoffs, to be done by the end of the year, are part of a restructuring that will refocus the Hong Kong operation mainly on research and development of high-value products, said Gloria Shiu, Motorola’s senior communications manager for the region.
The work now done by the 700 to 800 workers to be laid off will be transferred to Motorola Semiconductor’s plants in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Tianjin, China, she said.

Shiu said the job cuts were also intended to slash costs.
Hong Kong has already lost most of its manufacturing operations to mainland China, where labour and land costs are much lower. The global economic slowdown has prompted more layoffs, recently pushing the unemployment rate to 5.8 per cent, the highest level in two years.

Motorola Semiconductors, a wholly owned unit of Schaumburg, Illinois-based cell phone and semiconductor maker Motorola Inc, has been shutting down older plants and investing more heavily in advanced technology lines.

The Hong Kong plant will remain the headquarters for Motorola’s semiconductor operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

It will also remain the global center for final manufacturing, which comprises assembly and testing, Shiu said.

Motorola employs another 400 people in Hong Kong in other sectors, which won’t be affected by this restructuring, Shiu said.

— PTI