It is reported that voluntary redundancies have been offered to 11 workers at the Alcoa aluminium smelter in Portland.

The American owned company is undertaking a restructure to improve its global productivity.

Ms Anna Impey spokeswoman of Alcoa said that the low US dollar has affected profits. The company received more than 11 expressions of interest for voluntary redundancies.

She said that the announcement of the offer to give voluntary redundancies follows an extensive consultation process with our employees and the unions, which we started back in April when we announced that a further restructure program involving all facets of the business was taking place to improve profitability and international competitiveness.

(Sourced from ABC.Net)