Nissan confirms rumors that it plans job cuts at its European regional headquarters as part of a global strategy to reduce costs and bring the company back to a stable footing.
Earlier this week news reports began to circulate that the struggling Japanese automaker had entered consultations with staff representatives at Nissan Automotive Europe, its regional office in Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France, where currently about 560 employees are on staff.
In response to an enquiry by WardsAuto, Nissan confirms it is in voluntary separation talks with staff at the Montigny-le-Bretonneux office.
“We anticipate this consultation will be concluded in October, pending ratification with the authorities,” it says, adding: “Until then, with respect to the consultation process, there is no further information that we can share.”
Reports suggested the office is expected to undergo major changes affecting its work with organizations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India and Oceania.
Nissan is in discussions with employees over voluntary redundancies at the European headquarters in hopes of achieving as-yet-unspecified job cuts, with a final decision to be reached and communicated to staff in November.
So far, there has been no mention of any job cuts at Nissan’s only European production plant at Sunderland in northeast England.
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa announced plans for a major restructuring of the company in April, including reducing about 15% its global workforce, slicing vehicle production capacity by nearly 30% to 2.5 million vehicles annually and shutting seven of its Japanese manufacturing plants and one in Mexico.
