Renault and its Alliance, Nissan has been in having issues even before COVID-19 struck the world. The group has seen a downward trend in sales and profitability even while Carlos Ghosn was heading the group and after his departure, there were signs of a troubled auto manufacturer across all its brands.
Now comes this troubling news that they are about to move more than 15,000 employees across the globe which would result in more trouble at factories and dealerships around the world.
This Renault job cuts also include 4,600 job cuts in France, as part of a two billion euro (USD2.2 billion) cost-cutting plan over three years as revealed by news site APF and de.
The plan, which is set to be announced publicly on Friday (today), was explained to unions by the company on Thursday evening.
The company hopes to bring about the job cuts without redundancies through voluntary departures, internal mobility measures and retraining, the sources added.
Its annual global production capacity will be reduced from a current figure of four million vehicles to around 3.3 million. Consultations with staff representatives in France will start from next month.
The car industry faces an existential crisis from the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused sales to plunge as governments have forced citizens to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus.
Renault is in talks with the French government to obtain a 5-billion-euro state-backed loan, but the French government has made this conditional on guarantees for workers and production to remain in the country.
It also pushed the automaker to join a European initiative on batteries for electric cars. The French state holds a 15 per cent stake in Renault.
France had on Tuesday announced an 8 billion-euro plan to support the auto industry that President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped would help make the country the European leader in the manufacture of electric cars.
Renault and its partners Nissan and Mitsubishi had unveiled on Wednesday a plan to deepen their alliance, a top global producer of cars, that only months ago seemed on the verge of breakup.
Even before the current crisis, Renault had been rocked by the departure of emblematic CEO Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested in Japan in November 2018 over allegations of financial misconduct, including under reporting salary and misuse of company assets at Renault partner Nissan.
Brazilian-born Ghosn, who also has French and Lebanese nationality, is now in Lebanon, where he fled in December after jumping bail in Japan.
Source: AFP/de
