Toyota starts severance program at U.S. sales unit

Toyota Motor Corp. said it has begun a voluntary severance program for managers at its U.S. sales unit in Torrance, with no specific target for staff reduction.

Employees at the unit were informed of the program Tuesday in an internal memo, said Steve Curtis, a company spokesman. Of about 6,100 people who work for Toyota Motor Sales USA, 629 managers are eligible, Curtis said.

“This is a voluntary option, and since we don’t have a target we don’t know what the uptake will be,” he said. The program is intended to “align our staffing and organizational structure to fit our future needs and growth,” he said.

Toyota, based in Toyota City, Japan, is working to revive U.S. sales and its reputation for quality after recalling millions of vehicles for sticky accelerator pedals and other flaws. The effect of recalling a record number of Toyota and Lexus models last year led the company to report a 0.4% decline in U.S. sales in 2010, bucking the industry’s 11% annual gain.

The carmaker said Tuesday that sales rose 17% in January compared with a year earlier, when sales of some models were temporarily halted because of the pedal defect.

Candidates who choose the severance option will receive a “transition” payment of $20,000, two weeks’ pay for every year of employment and an additional amount equal to 10 weeks of salary, Curtis said. The program is open to managers in the sales unit’s automotive-operations and customer-service divisions, he said.