The Spanish carmaker Seat is planning to cut another ten per cent of its workforce in a bid to aid the monetary rejuvenation of the company, according to media reports.
Part of the Volkswagen (VW) group, Seat has 13,000 active workers and 2,000 in early retirement programmes, although it reached an agreement with unions in December 2005 to reduce its staff by 660 (four per cent) through voluntary resignations and early retirement.
A union source told Reuters news agency that Seat had approached the unions: "The message we received was that Seat management wants to cut the workforce by about ten per cent."
However, a Seat spokesman said the course of action taken by the company to return itself to profit "shouldn't include sackings but rather agreed layoffs" from the 13,000 strong workforce.
Seat incurred a loss of £42.7 million in 2005 as a result of depleting sales, investment costs and redundancies, which sparked rumours that VW might sell the firm.