MECHELEN – US chemicals multinational DuPont Nemours announced Wednesday it is to cut 63 jobs among its Belgian staff as part of a global reduction in its workforce.

DuPont currently employs 1,400 people across its five plants in Belgium, all situated in the Flanders region.

Details of the cuts were to be presented to staff representatives and unions later Wednesday, but the group said it hoped all redundancies would be voluntary.

DuPont on Tuesday said it was shedding 3,500 jobs worldwide, representing 6 percent of its total workforce, including 935 in western Europe.

Forty-three of the job losses in Belgium are to be among blue and white collar jobs at the group’s main industrial plant and local headquarters situated in Mechelin, which employs 1,250 people.

Belgium’s Socialist-affiliated trade union, the FGTB, said Wednesday it would oppose the cuts through every legal channel and protested that employees were first informed of the redundancies through media reports on Tuesday.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Belgian news