OREANDA-NEWS. AvtoVAZ notified on January 14th about its plans to cut 1,100 people, the chairman of the official trade union of the enterprise Sergey Zaitsev informed the newspaper "Vedomosti" and it was also confirmed by a representative of the company. By law, the notification shall be made three months before the cuts, so they will begin in April. A reduction will include only managers - DSIS staff (managers, specialists and employees), said the source of "Vedomosti".

The plant currently employs about 52 thousand people, including 10,000 managers. That is supposed to reduce the number of managers by 11%. However, the exact number of people who fall under the procedure of reduction can be significantly less, continues Mr.Zaytsev and a representative of AvtoVAZ: as in 2014, employees may be asked to leave by agreement of the parties with compensation of 3-5 salaries. But this issue is discussed, the order does not exist yet, said S.Zaytsev.

According to him, the main reason for the new cuts – is the situation on the market. Russian Lada sales in 2014 fell by 15% to 387,307 units, the overall market - by 10.3%. A week ago, AvtoVAZ came out of the Christmas holidays, its affiliated companies operate mainly in the five-day operation, but with a different number of shifts. For example, the line B0 (Renault Logan, Nissan Almera and so on) – works three shifts, Lada Kalina / Granta - two, Lada Priora - into one.

The average salary for managers of AvtoVAZ - is about 30 thousand rubles per a month, says a source close to the company. So, by firing 1,100 people, the company will save almost 400 million Rubles per year. For the six months of 2014, with a cost of 83.7 billion Rubles, it was 12.5 billion Rubles for labor and social spending, says the report data by IFRS of AvtoVAZ. But the plant feels the effect only in the second half of the year, as the company will pay people for several salaries, says the analyst of "VTB Capital", Vladimir Bespalov.

According to Mr.Zaytsev, the union agreed with the management of AvtoVAZ that there won’t be further reductions in 2015. Moreover, the reduction will not touch the workers, adds Mr.Zaytsev. "AVTOVAZ has a principal decision - not to reduce workers", - confirms the representative. This is logical - the company increases the production of vehicles by the orders of the alliance Renault-Nissan, commented Mr.Bespalov. Last year, the contract manufacturing at AvtoVAZ increased 6.5 times to 133,900 cars. In the case of a dramatic decrease in demand, the company will be able to go on a four-day work week, said earlier the president of AvtoVAZ, Bo Andersson.

AvtoVAZ, as in 2014, became the first automaker, which announced the reduction of personnel in Russia. During the year the number of plant workers has decreased by about 20%, managers directly - by a third. Last year, Ford Sollers and General Motors followed the example of AvtoVAZ. Now the market decline intensified, including due to the growth in prices for cars (due to the devaluation of the ruble), cost of consumer loans after a sharp increase in the discount rate of the Central Bank - it creates the preconditions for new cuts, says an employee of one of the Russian car plants. According to the AEB, sales of cars in 2015 could fall by 24%. But automakers have taken a wait – it is not planned cuts, said officials of Ford Sollers, "Sollers", Nissan and Volkswagen. Renault suspended the reception of staff. On the new car plants there are less opportunities to optimize costs than in the plants that were built in the Soviet years, especially it concerns the staff, notices Mr.Bespalov.