Nestlé has reached an agreement with unions in Spain to reduce the number of jobs the group plans to cut in the country.

In a statement yesterday (8 June), the Swiss food-and-drinks giant said it had reached a deal with employee representatives on its redundancy plan for Spain, first announced in April.

Under the agreement, the group has lowered the number of job cuts to "a maximum of 242 positions". That is a 20% drop on the initial 301 roles it had previously expected to axe.

In a statement last week, the industrial branch of the local CCOO union said Nestlé had also confirmed there are 64 jobs available that can be filled by employees impacted by the job cuts, which would take the number of job losses down to 178.

Nestlé said yesterday: "With the aim of minimising the impact, the agreement opens voluntary leave for those who want to take advantage of the departures under the conditions of the agreement and includes a set of social measures, such as a voluntary relocation plan."

The group also told Just Food it "has identified a number of vacancies to which potentially affected employees will have access across four factories and at the head office" in Esplugues in Barcelona's suburbs.

As these are "voluntary redeployments", the total number of jobs being lost "will only be confirmed once the voluntary period has concluded and, subsequently, the internal and voluntary redeployment process has been completed", it said.

According to the CCOO, the agreement will impact multiple Nestlé production sites and distribution and logistics centres in Spain, including the group's facility in Girona, which is the company's largest instant coffee plant in Europe and its third-largest worldwide.

It also is said to cover Nestlé's plant in La Penilla in the Cantabria region, where employees had recently planned to continue protests against the planned layoffs by agreeing to carry out work stoppages.

Nestlé began rolling out job cuts in Europe in April as part of its plan to slash 16,000 positions globally, a programme announced by CEO Philipp Navratil in October.

A statement from the company in April said its "workforce adjustment process" involved making up to 301 positions redundant in Spain.

Under the new agreement, employees under 54-years-old, or staff aged 54 who have worked with the group for less than five years, can receive a monthly severance pay equivalent to 45 days of pay per year of service, for a maximum of 42 months.

Staff up to 63-years-old will have "the option of an income plan", the group said, and added: "In both cases, additional incentives linked to age and length of service are also included."