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Nissan to slash 20,000 jobs worldwide

Nissan is slashing 20,000 jobs to cope with what the car manufacturer expects will be its first annual loss in nine years.

“The global auto industry is in turmoil, and Nissan is no exception,” Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told reporters Monday in Tokyo.

Nissan Motor Co. now expects a 265 billion yen (£1.94 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March - joining other Japanese corporate giants such as Toyota, Toshiba and Sony, in slashing jobs and projecting annual losses.

Like other Japanese automakers, Nissan has been battered by the global slump, which has undermined sales in its vital North American market. A strong yen also ate into profits by eroding overseas earnings when converted back to yen.

As a key step in weathering the downturn, Ghosn said Nissan’s global work force will be reduced by 20,000 through March 2010, to 215,000. Of the job cuts, 12,000 will be in Japan, including group companies, and the rest will be overseas, it said. The company did not give a further regional breakdown.

Tokyo-based Nissan has already reduced its temporary plant workers in Japan by about 2,000, slashed its British work force by 1,200 at its plant in Sunderland where it had employed about 5,000 people. It has offered early retirement to 1,200 workers in the U.S., but that number will likely increase, according to Nissan. It also has work stoppages in Spain.

Ghosn said hiring will become minimal, contracts for temporary workers will be ended and the company is offering early retirement packages. He added that Nissan would also negotiate a “work-sharing” scheme with the unions.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .