Uniper to cut 2,000 jobs in cost-cutting drive: paper

[November 22, 2017]  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German energy group Uniper <UN01.DE> is cutting a total of around 2,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, by the end of next year as part of a cost-cutting program it announced a year ago, its finance chief told daily Rheinische Post.

The flag of Uniper SE flutters in front of the utility's firm headquarters previously used by German utility giant E.ON in Duesseldorf, Germany, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

Uniper, the power plant and energy trading unit spun off by German utility E.ON, said last year it planned to save 400 million euros ($470 million) by the end of 2018 by cutting jobs and spending as it fights a crisis at its generation business.

The company had not said so far how many jobs would go.

Uniper has agreed with labor bosses on cuts via natural attrition, partial retirement and severance packages, finance chief Christopher Delbrueck told the Rheinische Post.

More than a third of the jobs being eliminated are those of workers who remained at E.ON in the spin-off, who worked at shut-down power plants or at units being divested, Delbrueck said.

"The remaining 1,250 jobs fall into efficiency program Voyager. The lion's share of those jobs has already been eliminated, the remaining ones are to follow by the end of 2018," Delbrueck was quoted as saying by the paper.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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