German carmaker Volkswagen this morning denied a report that the company could cut an extra 10,000 jobs, but a senior executive said the situation at the firm was serious.
VW personnel chief Horst Neumann said he had not told workers' representatives that planned job cuts could be extended, as was reported by news magazine Spiegel.
"I have never said such a thing," he said via a VW spokesman when asked about the job cuts. "The situation at VW is serious, but there is no reason to panic, and certainly no reason to create panic."
VW said in February that up to 20,000 German jobs could be affected by a three-year restructuring programme at its passenger car business.
Spiegelreported an additional 10,000 jobs could be at risk because high costs meant production of the next generation Golf model could be shifted out of Germany's Wolfsburg plant.
Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder said in February he had no plans to shut any plants or cancel VW's in-house wage agreement that protects the 100,000 highly-paid workers at its six western German plants from layoffs through the end of 2011.
The carmaker had already promised to make thousands of German jobs redundant, but only through early retirement and voluntary termination packages that could cost Volkswagen hundreds of millions of euros in restructuring charges.
