Berlin, September 13: Canadian auto parts maker Magna and its Russian finance partner plan to cut 10,500 jobs in Europe when taking over car makers Opel and Vauxhall, 4,500 of them in Germany, a German newspaper reported.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS), in its weekly edition to appear on Sunday, reported the number of anticipated job cuts citing a spokesman for Magna.
The weekly Der Spiegel put the job losses at Opel in Germany at 4,100, with the buyers of a controlling stake in General Motors’ European units planning “to eliminate 3,000 jobs in production and 1,100 in administration”, Der Spiegel reported without citing any sources, in its edition to appear today.
Both reported figures are higher than previous estimates of job losses.
Germany’s Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg also said that there could be more job cuts than originally expected.
“Since spring, it was known by all the parties, including representatives of the (Opel) employees, and from the information I was given, that the number (of job cuts) mentioned by Magna only concerned the productions sector but other job cuts were feared in administration,” Guttenberg said in an interview to appear today in the Bild am Sonntag.
Magna had earlier indicated that it wanted to cut about 10,000 of the 50,000 jobs in GM’s European units, Opel and Vauxhall. Half of the workforce is in Germany where there are four Opel factories.
–Agencies