GM offers retirement incentives to cut 4,000 white-collar jobs

About 4,000 more salaried workers at GM will lose jobs by the end of '09 as the automaker continues to downsize. GM notified over 27,000 U.S. white-collar workers it'll offer standard severance packages & employees near retirement age will have the opp to retire early, it said. Some involuntary cuts will be necessary, he said, as GM tries to shrink salaried work force to 23,500 by year's end. The automaker is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection & got $20B in loans from gov't. The Treasury Dept.'s auto task force is overseeing aplans to restructure & emerge from bankruptcy as leaner, more competitive co. Wilkinson said the Treasury's approved the retirement offers and severance packages. He would not give an estimate of how much the packages will cost it. "We were able to do this because it's a cost-effective way to get the reductions," he said. GM already cut its salaried work force by over 2,000 this year. It started 2009 with 29,650. Workers who agree to leave GM will get standard severance packages of 2 weeks' pay for every year of service, up to 6 months of pay, he said. For those near retirement age, there packages that lets them retire early with benefits, he said. Involuntary cuts will be made based on performance, skills & length of service. Workers were told to reply to the latest offers by Aug. 3. GM plans to finalize who will be cut by Oct. 1, he said. Cuts will vary by dept., with some seeing fewer than others. For example, electric vehicle development, which it is banking on for future sales, will be fewer cuts than other areas, he said.