Toyota offering buyouts to cut salaried work force

DETROIT — Toyota is offering buyout packages to cut the management staff at its U.S. sales headquarters in California, the company said Tuesday.

The announcement is not tied to a small sales drop last year or a spate of safety recalls that have hurt the Japanese automaker.

Offers were made to 629 people in the Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. customer services and automotive operations groups, mainly at the headquarters in Torrance, Calif., spokesman Steve Curtis said. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. employs about 6,100 people.

The buyouts are voluntary and the company has no target number to reach, Curtis said.

Toyota was the only major automaker to see a U.S. sales drop last year, just under 1 percent. Sales rebounded in last month and were up 17 percent over January of 2010, a month in which the company was forced to temporarily stop selling eight models because of defective gas pedals.

Toyota's once-invincible image has been hurt by a spate of recalls that began late in 2009, mostly in North America. The recalls now cover more than 12 million cars and trucks worldwide. Many of the recalls involve defective floor mats and gas pedals that get stuck, some of them suspected of causing unintended acceleration.

But Curtis said the buyouts are not a cost-cutting move due to the sales decline or the recalls.

"We are very optimistic for the year," Curtis said, adding that the company plans to roll out 10 new or redesigned models in 2011. "This is the result of an ongoing review of our organizational structure and our staffing needs and how we best align them to meet our future business prospects and growth," he said.

The move, first reported Tuesday by the trade publication Automotive News, will add responsibility to the remaining managers and improve efficiency, Curtis said.

Workers are being offered a $20,000 payment, two weeks of pay for each year of service, plus another 10 weeks of salary, Toyota said in a statement.

They have to decide on the package by March 31 and leave the company on April 28.

Curtis said he could not comment on whether buyouts will be offered in other areas of the company.