General Motors started handing out pink slips to its workers as it intends to lay off 4,000 white-collar employees. The massive layoff is part of the company's move to give way to its restructuring plans that were announced in November 2018.
According to Detroit Free Press, General Motors announced on Monday, Feb. 4, that it already started to cut workers and this process will continue in two weeks until all the affected workers have left. Most of the employees that will lose their jobs are from GM's plants in North America. To be more specific, the job cuts will affect staff in General Motors' information technology center located in Arizona, Texas, Michigan and Georgia. 1,000 people will be laid off from GM's Michigan Tech Center in Warren.
"This will be implemented staff-by-staff and location-by-location over the next couple of weeks," Pat Morrissey, GM's spokesperson, told the Free Press. "We're not going to get into which departments and when and where it's happening. Some staffs have already implemented this over the last few weeks, but there's more of it this week and next week."
It was learned that prior to this mass layoff, General Motors already eliminated about 2,300 white-collar and 1,500 contract workers in December last year. On the whole, the company's goal is to get rid of at least 15 percent of its workforce which is equivalent to 8,000 people.
Morrissey said that the job terminations are needed in order to make sure that the company will thrive in the future and help with preserving thousands of jobs across the United States and worldwide.
"We are taking action now while the overall economy and job market are strong, increasing the ability of impacted employees to continue to advance in their careers, should they choose to do so," he explained.
Now, to compensate the affected workers, GM's spokesman further revealed that they will be given severance pay packages and the company will offer job placement services as well. However, this is only for the salaried staff so the contract workers are likely to lose their post without much compensation.
Finally, General Motors is not the only car manufacturer that is laying off workers. NBC News reported that another leading automaker, Ford, is also set to dismiss as many as 25,000 staff due to restructuring. The job cuts will hit the company's offices in Europe and other branches that are not doing well.
