General Motors is planning to cut its Opel administrative staff by 30% or 1,000 jobs according to a report in a German newspaper.
The jobs would go at its Russelsheim headquarters according to the report in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that cited unnamed board members as source.
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The report also said that the cuts would be achieved voluntarily, without resort to compulsory redundancies.
Opel said in a statement that part of its 10-year plan “Drive Opel 2022” included reducing personnel costs, an issue for which it is currently in talks with labour leaders.
“On the latter topic, we are currently holding intensive discussions with our employee representatives and the IG Metall,” the statement said.
“We have repeatedly mentioned that we need to become leaner and more nimble as an organisation,” the company added. “There is nothing new to announce today.”
GM is under considerable pressure to reduce costs in recession hit Europe. The company may be in profit overall, but it booked a US$617m loss in Europe in the first half. The Morgan Stanley analyst, Adam Jonas, recently suggested that the company should, once again, consider selling off its Opel/Vauxhall operations.
