Peugeot job cuts plan clears hurdle

Plans by troubled French carmaker Peugeot Citroen to shed over 11,000 jobs cleared a major hurdle on Monday. After long negotiations with management, the company's central works committee approved the compensation package with union members representing 76 percent of the employees voting in favour, according to the carmaker's industrial director Denis Martin. After further consultations the job cuts and compensation package should receive final approval in the second half of April. PSA Peugeot Citroen, the biggest French carmaker and Europe's second-biggest after Volkswagen, shocked France in the middle of last year when it announced the huge job cuts and plans to shut a plant near Paris. But many employees at the Aulnay-sous-Bois plant outside the capital slated for closure remained vociferously opposed to terms of the compensation package. Around 200 gathered outside Peugeot's headquarters Monday, burning tyres, as they demanded the company secure new full-time jobs or give early retirement to all workers. Martin said the company aimed to offer several options to each employee affected, and had already lined up many possibilities including internal transfer, or employment at affiliated firms or new companies created at the site. Peugeot suffered a record loss of 5.0 billion euros ($6.5 billion) in 2012, mostly due to writing down the value of its assets as the European car market skids.