The furniture production sector in Lithuania is shrinking, with companies putting staff on furlough. Raimundas Beinortas, director of the Association Lithuanian Forest, says the tools to help the sector are at the government’s disposal.
"The state [made] preparations not long ago, let's remember what the situation was like when the pandemic started. So [the state] should take out its entire menu of tools and see what it can do," Beinortas told LRT RADIO on Monday.
According to him, furniture companies are putting scores of employees on furlough.
"We need to think about the employees, because if people go on downtime, there are problems with their income. The state should think about how to help these people – whether to pay subsidies to companies [...] or whether it is direct payments to the staff," said Beinortas.
In April, Creditinfo Lietuva reported that the demand for furniture had fallen by 32.5 percent since October last year, with 23 percent of furniture makers being at high risk of not meeting their financial obligations.
"It is very difficult for companies to say goodbye to people, because there was [...] a significant shortage of these workers and companies found and trained them, and there was a lot of money invested in human resources, so companies are trying to keep these people, trying to find ways to manage," Beinortas added.
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