Half of Opel German staff to work shorter hours

Around 12,000 Opel workers, roughly half the German automaker's domestic workforce, will work fewer hours in January and February owing to slumping sales, a spokesman said yesterday.

The measure will represent a "few days" of unemployment per month, he said. "We are in an economic crisis and we have to adapt," the spokesman added.

In December however, the European unit of US car maker General Motors hailed a 31 per cent jump in 2009 sales to 339,000 vehicles, its best result in four years.

The auto industry expects 2010 sales to be sharply lower in Europe however after state subsidies for scrapping older cars are withdrawn.

Germany's short working time programme, under which the government partially subsidises pay for those whose hours have been cut, has allowed car companies to trim production forces as demand falls off.

The scheme has been extended several times by German authorities.

Meanwhile, Opel's supervisory board was to meet later yesterday to discuss management changes. GM named finance director Walter Borst as head of the board in December.

The head of GM Europe, Nick Reilly, is working on a restructuring plan for Opel that foresees 8,300 job cuts, and hopes to obtain €2.7 billion in public aid to carry it out.