Yonhap reported that some 800 employees of Renault Samsung Motors Co, the South Korean unit of French automaker Renault SA, have applied for the company's voluntary retirement program aimed at cutting costs.

According to the carmaker, it received voluntary retirement applications from 350 manufacturing workers and 450 office workers from August 13th 2012 to September 4th 2012 or 14% of its 5,500 strong workforce.

The company will give up to two years of salary to those who apply for the redundancy plan, along with retirement benefits.

Renault Samsung went into the job cutting program in August 2012 in order to reduce labor costs for the first time since its foundation in 2000, as it has been suffering a sales plunge for months.

For eight months of 2012, its cumulative sales dove nearly 40% YoY to 105,001 vehicles.

In July 2012, Renault Group promised to invest USD 160 million into the South Korean unit and produce Nissan's Rogue crossover vehicle at its plant in Busan, some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, from 2014 onwards. The Busan factory has an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

Source - Yonhap News

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