Peugeot to Layoff 10,000

The French automaker Peugeot has come to a rather startling decision, according to representatives of the union for the worker at the company is getting ready to trim back on a serious amount of its staff. How many people are going to be put out of a job? Well according to the current reports the company is looking to cut back on about ten percent of its workforce. In real terms this is about 10,000 workers whose jobs are on the line right now.

Those of you who pay attention to the job cuts may notice that this is a marked increase from the company’s former estimates. The company had previously thought that it was going to have to get rid of only about 6,000 workers. This increase of 4,000 more jobs is a serious hit to the workers of the company.

Of course other layoffs in the nation of France are taking unusual twists, like not being layoffs at all. Take for example the curious case of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA who is cutting back at 2,500 workers, the claim, without any layoffs. For those of you who missed out on that coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “Today we are going to take a look at the cuts to Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA. While Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA may not exactly be a household name here in the USA, in Brazil the company is fairly large. As a matter of fact they can boast being the nations second largest airline… The company is hoping that all of the jobs will not have to come via layoffs. There is a strong push towards attrition under this new plan, as well as a full freeze on hiring. The company is doing all of this to get out of the red. They have been on a downward slide for some time now.”

The company chose to take this approach to appeal to the newly appointed government in France, which has strong socialist leanings. As you can imagine the kind of job cuts that this automaker is talking about are not likely to make them popular with the current government.

The cuts to the auto industry have impacted companies well outside of France, as automakers all over the world have found sales harder to make. Some of you mar recall our coverage of cuts to the Daimler Corporation’s staffing in which 1,500 workers were put out of a job due to the current economic issues.

For the time being, because the information was release by the union, and has not been confirmed by the company there few details, outside of the sizable number of jobs to be cut, to be had at the moment. We know nothing about what kinds of benefits the company will be extending to the sizable workforce that they are planning to put out of a job in the near future. For now we all have to wait for details.