Gamesa reaches Spanish job cut deal

SPAIN: Gamesa has reached agreement with unions to cut 342 jobs as it closes down two turbine blade manufacturing plants and restructures another in Spain.

In May, Gamesa announced that it was looking for 394 redundancies from the closure of the Albacete and Tudela plants, and the downscaling of As Somozas.

The company settled with the unions on 52 fewer redundancies with 102 relocation offers. Severance was set at 33 days pay per year worked.

The job cuts are part the 2013-2015 restructuring plans laid out by chief executive Ignacio Martin in October 2012 to cut 20% of its global workforce.

He said the cuts would be mainly in China, the US and Europe, totalling around 1,800. Spain is likely to take the brunt of the European job losses.