Holden to cut white-collar workers

Battling car maker GM Holden will again take the axe to its workforce, with a yet-to-be-determined number of jobs to be slashed from the company’s engineering and marketing departments.

The job cuts, which will be focussed on the company’s Port Melbourne office, come just a few weeks after the Federal Government’s Export Finance and Insurance Corporation announced it had extended a $200 million line of credit to Holden.

“We’re offering voluntary packages within some of our functions, primarily office-based functions at our Port Melbourne headquarters,” a Holden spokesman said in a statement.

“Some of these functions have remained more or less untouched over the years as we’ve gone down to one shift out at our Elizabeth plant, as export and engineering projects have come and gone, and as our domestic markets have contracted.”

He also stressed that the job cuts and line of credit are unconnected.

Exactly how many jobs might go is unclear. While some media has reported that up to 200 jobs might be lost, the union that represents white collar Holden workers expects about 70 jobs to go.

Leslie Adams, director of the Victorian branch of The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, told Crikey the current round of separation packages may not be the last, which puts workers in a difficult spot.

“How do you choose yes or no, if you don’t know what is coming up?”

“We want to ensure that people are not enthusiastically encouraged to take a package if they really don’t want one,” Adams said.

Holden has been aggressively cutting wage costs in the last 12 months as domestic and export car sales have continued to decline. Workers at the company’s Adelaide plant have moved from two shifts to one shift, while the Holden’s four-cylinder engine plant is set to close by the end of the year.