PARIS (AP) -- French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen plans to cut the night shift at its Sochaux plant in Eastern France from the beginning of February to cope with falling sales, a spokesman said Wednesday.
A total of 1,200 night workers on the Peugeot 308 compact saloon line will be affected by the plans, which will be presented to workers Friday, spokesman Laurent Cicolella said.
Of these, 300 workers on fixed-term contracts will be retrained and 900 fixed-term workers will not have their contracts renewed, he said. There will be no layoffs.
"There's no denying it: In 2009 we are in a period of crisis and we continue to adapt to this crisis," Cicolella said.
The company hopes to launch a new team to work on a different assembly line making the Peugeot 3008 vehicle at the site at the end of the first half of 2009 -- providing market conditions allow, he said.
A workers council meeting at the Rennes site is also set for Friday, he said, but declined to comment further.
