The Wisconsin DWD announced they've received a Wisconsin Business Closing and Mass Layoff notice from Kohler Company.
Kohler Company has notified the state that the previously announced transfer of their engines division in Kohler is scheduled to commence on January 12. Ninety employees are expected to be affected.
In the notice, Kohler Company says a permanent relocation of one of the assembly lines and related areas of the Engines division manufacturing facility in Kohler, which was originally announced in September 2018, is scheduled to happen January 2020. Kohler tells the state that the remainder of the Engines division manufacturing operation will not be impacted at that time.
Kohler Company says since the original September 2018 announcement, no Engines manufacturing associate has been laid off, and many have transferred to other jobs. But, Kohler says certain sectors of the economy have slowed in the past 14 months, including housing, which impacts the number of open positions in other divisions of Kohler Company.
Due to several different circumstances, including retirements, bidding, bumping and transfer rights in the collective bargaining agreement, the Kohler Company says it's impossible to predict which associates, if any, will be affected or the order in which individual associates may be laid off. The company says it will work to place the 90 associates in other positions.
The layoffs will commence on January 12, or within thirteen days thereafter, Kohler says in the WARN notice.
The Bay Area Workforce Development Board will offer services to those workers affected.
