MOSCOW, April 09, 9:48 /ITAR-TASS/. Ford carmaking joint venture situated in the city of Vsevolozhsk in north-western Russia’s Leningrad Region will pass to production in one working shift and will lay off about 700 employees (the Ford joint venture has 2,267 employees now), additional days of idleness are introduced with further transition to the work in one shift. The labor state inspection has made a warning to the general director of the joint venture that it was impermissible to violate labor legislation in staff dismissal.

Essential agreements for launching a program of voluntary resignation of employees were reached, the press service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. Dismissed employees will be paid not three, but five dismissal wages that “prevents employees from moods to go on strikes.”

Ford Sollers carmaking plant, a joint venture of Ford Motor Company and Sollers, has suspended production for a week from April 7 to 15. According to current plans, the production line is planned to suspend from April 21 to June 8, after that the carmaker will pass to one working shift and will lay off around 700 employees.

Ford became one of first world car brands operating in Russia since 2002. Initial design capacity of the Ford joint venture has made 25 thousand cars annually and around 100 thousand cars have been produced each year for the last few years. There were some prospects to reach an annual output of 120 thousand cars.

World car brands are popular in Russia for more than 15 years. Tens of car assembling plants were built in Russia. The largest world car labels represented in Russia are Ford, Skoda, Nissan, Opel, Kia, Volkswagen, Toyota, Renault, Chevrolet, Peugeot, Citroen, Mitsubishi.

Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ, the largest one in Eastern Europe, is the major carmaking company in the country. Among other leading carmaking plants in Russia are Toyota with its plant Toyota Motor Manufacturing in the municipal settlement of Shushary in the city of St. Petersburg, Peugeot-Citroen-Mitsubishi plant in the central Russian city of Kaluga, company Avtotor [car brands Kia, BMW, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Opel, Hummer] in the Russian westernmost Kaliningrad region, plant Hyundai Motor Manufacturing in Leningrad Region and General Motors in the city of St. Petersburg.