The German industrial group ThyssenKrupp said on May 8 it would shed 1,800-2,000 German posts by 2011 in its steel division.
The group would avoid outright firings, board member Dieter Kroll said in an interview to appear on May 9 in the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "We adhere to principle of avoiding layoffs," personnel director Dieter Kroll told the daily. Anticipated retirements, voluntary departures and internal reassignments would account for the reductions, he added.
The reductions would concern seven German sites and take place by the end of September 2010.
ThyssenKrupp, which employs more than 40,000 people worldwide, said the move was taken to deal with "the dramatic global economic slump since late 2008 which has hit ThyssenKrupp Steel's activities hard."
More than 15,000 workers are already on short-time work schemes but that has not been enough enough to compensate for surplus capacity at the group.
The move is part of a larger reorganization of ThyssenKrupp, which also manufactures elevators, automobile assembly lines and ships.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
