The struggling Swedish battery producer earlier this month warned that it would have to cut jobs as a result of its economic crisis.

This week, an undisclosed number of migrant workers were let go before the formal round of layoffs has even started, reports Sveriges Radio’s news programme, Ekot.

FOR MEMBERS:

• Five things you need to do right away if you’re getting laid off in Sweden

“They’ve left a whole life behind to invest in a future here. I would like Northvolt to answer the question of how they’re going to look after these people,” Lena Lundgren, local coordinator for the IF Metall metalworkers’ union, told Ekot.

Northvolt writes in an email to Ekot that they are in contact with the people affected to help them.

Layoffs are usually regulated according to a fairly strict process in Sweden, but the rules for dismissing people are much more relaxed when it comes to the probationary period (usually the first six months). Unlike those with permanent contracts, the reasons for dismissal don’t have to be justified or documented as they would for permanent employees, and employers don’t have to give as much notice.

Earlier in September, Northvolt said it had not yet made any final decisions on how many jobs the company might make redundant, but that it was going to have to make “difficult decisions on the size of our workforce” in order to meet its objective of focusing on large-scale cell manufacturing.

It said it had launched talks with trade unions to minimise the number of redundancies.

“As difficult as this will be, focusing on what is our core business paves the way for us to build a strong long-term foundation for growth that contributes to the Western ambitions to establish a homegrown battery industry,” Northvolt CEO and co-founded Peter Carlsson said at the time.

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Northvolt is the latest in a series of Swedish tech giants to struggle with the economic pressure of the past few years.

Swedish telecoms equipment company Ericsson said earlier this year it was cutting 8.6 percent of its Swedish workforce.

In early August, the Swedish Labour Ministry announced that the country was facing its highest unemployment rate in a decade, excluding the pandemic period.