Agerpres reported that Automobile Dacia carmaker might dismiss some 600 fixed term employees by the end of 2008.

Mr Sergiu Sepciu head of the press office of Automobile Dacia said that "We are not talking about layoffs in this case. We will decide whether some fixed term employment contracts due to end on December 31st 2008 will be extended or terminated."

The situation of the 600 employees will be clarified before the expiration date of their employment contracts. Regarding the other 2,000 employees recruited on the basis of fixed term employment contracts, due to end next year, a decision will be made at the right time, the source announced.

Dacia officials said that the employees on short time working following the production standstill will be granted some 85% of their total gross salary, according to the collective employment contract and the meal vouchers relating to the days in which the production was halted, which they received in advance.

Dacia had also ceased production on October 30th and October 31st 2008 due to the need to adapt the production process to the car market evolution and on November 13th and November 14th 2008.

Fixed term staff represents some 20% of the total 14,000 Dacia employees. Automobile Dacia has halted production for 18 days, as of November 20th 2008, due to decreased sales.