US car maker General Motors said today it planned to offer voluntary redundancies to all 74,000 members of its union-represented US workforce, as it posted its biggest annual loss ever.
GM said it had lost a record $38.7 billion in 2007, mostly due to a writedown in accumulated tax credits in the third quarter that were expected to expire unused.
The redundancies would permit GM to make a further transformation of its workforce after years of painful reorganisation in the face of eroding market share, especially in North America.
The company said it was offering $140,000 to employees with more than 10 years of service and $70,000 to others.
GM is offering early retirement pension incentives of $45,000 for production employees or $62,500 for skilled trades workers. Eligible employees can select from a variety of ways to receive their incentive.
GM decided to write down the tax credits in the third quarter of 2007 when it realised it might not be able to earn enough money to use them before they expire. Excluding special items, GM's loss was a more modest $23m on revenues of $181 billion.
