Nissan to offer severance packages to older US workers

Slumping Nissan Motor Co. is offering voluntary separation packs to many of its U.S. workers as it tries to resize itself to match lower sales.  Japanese automaker wouldn't say how many employees it is targeting to leave, how much money it expects to save or give details of severance offers. offers are being me to factory and white-collar workers over of 52.

Nissan's U.S. sales were down almost 10% last year, with Nissan brand down 8.7% and its Infiniti luxury brand off 21.1%. Many analysts expect total U.S. auto sales to drop this year. “To apt to current business needs and improve efficiencies, Nissan will offer voluntary separation packs to eligible U.S.-based employees,” company said in a statement Tuesday.

Company spokeswoman Lloryn Love-Carter said although she couldn't give a specific number of workers company is seeking to cut, it would t be in thousands. She said offers will be in U.S. only. Earlier in January, Nissan me its U.S. employees take two unpaid furlough days. company has more than 20,000 U.S. workers, concentrated mainly at its U.S. hequarters in Franklin, Tennessee, at factory complexes in Canton, Mississippi, and Smyrna, Tennessee, and a technical center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Eligible workers will be tified by Friday and would leave later in year. t all applications will be approved, Love-Carter said. Nissan also said it would cut two sales regions and reduce frequency of its sales reports to quarterly from monthly, following le of Detroit automakers.

Last summer Nissan said it would cut 12,500 jobs, or about 9% of its global workforce, to pare costs and turn around its business.  company reported in vember that its July-September profit tumbled to half of what it earned year before as sales and brand power crumbled following arrest of its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, by Japanese authorities. Ghosn, who fled from Japan to Leban, was charged with under-reporting his future compensation and breach of trust in diverting Nissan money for personal gain. He says compensation was never decided on or paid, and payments were for legitimate business.