A representative said today she had no knowledge of an estimated 1,700 jobs lost in Heidelberg, yesterday because of a huge slowdown in the digital camera business. She said she could neither confirm nor deny the reports, caused, according to our information, because of a drop of sales in the pricy consumer items. She promised Kodak would come back to us before we went to press. We await the call. But if Kodak's experience is anything like Compaq experience in laying off French and German employees, this could be deeply tricky. Organisations called Work Councils prevent this level of redundancy in France and Germany. ®