GM Holden says it will not immediately feel the impact of a decision from its parent company General Motors to cut white collar jobs from its global car making operations.
The US company said it would cut 10,000 jobs worldwide this year amounting to 14 per cent of its salaried workers as it pulls together a plan for the Treasury Department on how to return to profitability.
GM said it expected the cuts to reduce its global salaried workforce to about 63,000 this year.
The job losses were combined with reductions in pay for salaried workers of between three and 10 per cent.
''These difficult actions are necessitated by a severe drop in vehicle sales worldwide and by the need to restructure GM for long-term viability,'' the auto giant said.
A Holden spokesman said the move by GM would not impact immediately on the company's Australian operations but it continued to look at what steps it needed to take to counteract the economic downturn.
''The outlook for 2009 is extremely challenging with shrinking local and export markets impacting on our sales volumes and manufacturing schedules," he said.
''We're looking at how we can move to a business model that will make us strong and profitable long term.
''The harsh reality is that we're facing some big challenges, some big decisions."
Holden said no decisions had been made but the company is looking at all aspects of the business and fundamentally asking how to structure Holden to protect the company in Australia for future generations.
Holden has cut production at its manufacturing operations in Adelaide this year, with workers taking periods of leave in the first quarter.
Conversely, it has also announced plans to build a new small car in Australia from 2010.
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