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GM cutting 10,000 jobs

NEW YORK -  General Motors announced Tuesday it is cutting 10,000 workers, or 14% of its salaried jobs worldwide. A third of those job losses will be in the United States.

The troubled automaker also said it will cut the pay for its remaining U.S. salaried staff..

GM (GM, Fortune 500), which is preparing to present a long-term viability plan to the Treasury Department next week, said the cutbacks are part of the restructuring plan it submitted to Congress on Dec. 2 when it was first asking Washington for federal assistance.

GM received $9.4 billion in federal loans in order to allow it to stay out of bankruptcy, and expects to receive another $4 billion in federal loans after its Feb. 17 submission to the Treasury Department.

GM said worldwide salaried staff would be cut to 63,000 from 73,000, and that 3,400 of its 29,500 salaried staff in the United States will be affected. This job reduction will not include voluntary buyout offers, however.

The automaker made such offers to salaried and hourly workers last year and recently made another one to hourly staff that began this week.

Instead, the mostly white-collar workers affected by Tuesday's announcement will receive severance payments, benefit contributions and outplacement assistance.

The majority of the reductions are expected to take place by May 1, 2009. Staff who remain after May 1 will have their salaries reduced for the rest of the year, with executives having their base pay reduced by 10% and many other salaried employees having their pay cut between 3% and 7%.