Car manufacturer Nissan has announced it will be cutting 1,500 jobs in its native Japan.
The automobile company says the cuts are "one of several actions taken by Nissan to boost its competitiveness and performance in 2007" and will implement a voluntary retirement programme (VRP) for eligible employees in Japan to make the changes to staffing.
Full-time staff members aged over 45 who have more than five years of service are eligible to apply for the VRP scheme from June 1st 2007 to the end of March 2008 and will receive a retirement compensation package based on their years of service.
"The VRP is primarily designed to balance staffing levels with assembly requirements, taking into account production mix and productivity gains," a statement from the Tokyo-based firm read.
Nissan's Japanese VRP scheme will follow in the footsteps of the firm's highly successful programme operated in North America. When offered to employees earlier this year, more than double the expected number of employees accepted the package.
"It is one of the measures we have taken recently to help boost performance," Simon Sproule, spokesperson for Nissan, said.
"It's about making sure structurally we're right sized."
Digg 
Delicious 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Google 
Technorati 
Netvouz