🏭 Hammered by sanctions, AvtoVAZ offers money to plant workers in Izhevsk who agree to quit

The AvtoVAZ automobile manufacturing company is offering severance packages and help finding permanent jobs at other nearby enterprises to furloughed plant workers in Izhevsk. Employees who agree to resign voluntarily would receive as much as 183,000 rubles ($3,000). Additional payments will be available to older workers who wish to retire altogether.

In late July, AvtoVAZ factory workers in Izhevsk wrote an open letter to President Putin asking him not to allow their plant’s closure. International sanctions have cut off the company’s access to vital foreign components, shuttering the Izhevsk factory after Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine. AvtoVAZ has reportedly decided to move Lada Vesta production to Tolyatti and refocus manufacturing to the Largus model, though plant workers in Izhevsk worry that consumers won’t buy the electric car.