Will General Motors layoff 10,000 salaried jobs?

General Motors Corp. said on Tuesday it will cut 10,000 salaried jobs, citing the need to restructure itself with a government deadline looming and amid some of the worst sales in the auto industry's history.

The Detroit-based automaker said it will reduce its total number of salaried workers to 63,000 from 73,000 this year. About 3,400 of GM's 29,500 salaried U.S. jobs are expected to be eliminated.

The company's statement said that the separations would be done through GM's severance plan, so there would be no buyout or early retirement packages as GM had offered in the past.

In its plan to Congress submitted late last year, GM said work force reductions would be necessary in order for it to be viable for the long term. Most of the cuts are expected to take place by May 1.

GM said the cuts will vary by global regions depending on staffing levels and market conditions.

In addition, GM said it will cut the pay of most of its salaried U.S. workers beginning May 1 and continuing at least through the end of the year at which time the pay cuts will be evaluated.

The pay of U.S. executive employees will be cut by 10 percent, while other salaried workers will see cuts of 3 percent to 7 percent, GM said.

GM faces a Feb. 17 deadline to present to the government a plan showing it can become viable. The plan is required by the terms of $9.4 billion in low-interest government loans to the wounded automaker, which is seeking another $4 billion from the Treasury Department.

The automaker is negotiating with bondholders and the United Auto Workers union for concessions and it is planning to close several factories. To prove its viability, it must show an ability to repay the loans and prove "positive net present value."

Agencies

ING cuts 750 jobs due to economic slowdown

Dutch financial services group ING Groep NV will cut 750 jobs, or 7 percent of its US workforce, as part of a global programme to cope with the economic slowdown, ING spokesmen said on Tuesday.

"As many companies in the United States we need to align operations with market conditions," ING spokesman Dana Ripley said. US companies such as Bank of America Corp have announced job cuts in the past few months to deal with slowing business activity and the U.S. Labor Department said last week that employers cut payrolls by 524,000 in December.

ING will cut the jobs during the first quarter across all its U.S. banking and insurance operations and it will also not fill 170 vacancies in the United States, Ripley said. ING currently has about 11,000 US employees people and a total global workforce of 130,000.

The US job cuts are part of a global initiative to bring costs and operations in line with market conditions as ING said in November, ING spokesman Raymond Vermeulen said. He declined to say if there could be job cuts outside the United States. ING posted a third quarter loss of 478 million euros ($635.6 million) due to 1.5 billion euros of impairments, making it ING's first quarterly loss ever.

Agencies