Toyota group firm to cut 450 temporary workers amid slumping sales

NAGOYA, Dec. 3 Kyodo - Automobile assembler Kanto Auto Works Ltd. of the Toyota Motor Corp. group is planning to cut about 450 non-regular employees by next April mainly due to shrinking sales of Toyota compact cars like the Corolla sold in the United States, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The Kanagawa Prefecture-based firm will slash about 300 seasonal workers and
about 150 employees dispatched by staffing agencies, the sources said.
By not renewing contracts during the January-April period, the company plans to
reduce by about 30 percent its current workforce of 1,000 seasonal workers at a
factory in Iwate Prefecture.
For the dispatched workers, Kanto Auto Works is expected to terminate contracts
at the end of December for about 50 employees at the Iwate factory. It will
also end contracts that expire at the year-end for about 100 employees working
at another factory in Shizuoka Prefecture, the officials said.
Due to a global slowdown in auto sales, the company has already revised
downward its output forecast for the current business year until March 2009
from an earlier projection of 540,000 units to 520,000 units, but analysts said
the actual figures are expected to fall even below the revised outlook.