- 81 - quality standards further demonstrates the substantiality of the assembly operations conducted by each of those corporations. Respondent also contends that the assembly operations at issue did not require a sufficient investment in physical capital to be substantial in nature. Although we agree with respondent that the respective sunglass assembly operations conducted by B&L Ireland and B&L Hong Kong did not require a large investment in physical capital, her contention ignores the fact that those operations required a substantial investment in human capital in order to produce quality sunglasses. Without a trained and experienced workforce, neither B&L Ireland nor B&L Hong Kong would have been able to produce quality sunglasses that met B&L's quality standards. In fact, both B&L Ireland and B&L Hong Kong experienced significant quality problems during their respective first years of operation. Those operations could not readily be relocated since they were dependent on a trained and experienced workforce. In fact, the IDA considered B&L Ireland's sunglass assembly operations to create jobs of a sufficiently permanent nature to warrant the issuance of training grants to compensate B&L Ireland for the period during which its employees were not efficient at producing quality sunglasses. Respondent further contends that the actual assembly of sunglasses by B&L Ireland and by B&L Hong Kong did not require substantial amounts of time to accomplish and therefore cannot bePage: Previous 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011