About 600 Holden employees will lose their jobs after parent company General Motors announced it would axe the iconic Australian car brand by the end of the year.
GM said the brand was no longer competitive in the current market and would be “retired” from sales, design and engineering across Australia and New Zealand by 2021.
GM officials said about 600 employees would leave by June, while 200 would remain in ongoing roles connected with the company’s pledge to offer at least 10 more years of customer service to owners of the 1.6 million Holdens in circulation.
The announcement drew criticism from the Government, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying he was angry the brand was allowed to “wither away”.
Holden ended its Australian manufacturing operations in October 2017, forcing hundreds of job losses.
About 800 Holden employees had remained in Australia, including 600 Melbourne workers focused on designing cars for the Australian market.
The announcement coincides with GM’s decision to withdraw Chevrolet from the domestic market in Thailand by the end of the year.
Read more via ABC News
