February 28, 2014. Uralasbest, the primary employer in Asbest, Sverdlovsk Region, which currently employs 6,600 people, might place its workers on a three days on, two days off basis due to sales problems. The employees have been informed of the possible by changes by now, but the decision was actually taken as a possible Plan B, no layoffs are expected, Sverdlovsk Region Construction Ministry told UrBC.

Uralasbest makes 21% of the world supply of asbestos, and 78% of its produce are exported. Things have grown more difficult lately because the importing countries keep protesting against asbestos due to its detrimental effect on human health. This is why the enterprise has only been working four days out of six for several years now.

However, Uralasbest is planning to launch a second production line for making heat-insulating materials in the second quarter of the year, the Construction Ministry reports. This gives some reasons to hope that no shorter working weeks will be introduced, and no redundancies will take place, the Ministry says.
In fact, some announcements on possible layoffs appeared on February 26, but this was not confirmed later.