Spanish car producer Seat announced Friday 700 workers will be hit by its planned temporary suspension of employees to tide over financial difficulties.
According to the new Temporary Regulations of Employment, Seat will cut 163,000 working days and suspend 700 workers from Nov. 8 this year to June 30 next year.
Matias Carnero, president of the Seat Committee, said the new regulations would affect 57 days during which three production lines would be halted.
"We hope this is the last temporary regulations that we have to introduce," he said, adding that he hoped the situation would be better in the second half of 2011.
"We are looking forward to a year of increased production and productivity," he said.
Seat's decision on temporary suspension of production comes after three months of sharply falling car sales in Spain.
Beginning from July this year, the Spanish government introduced a 2-percent increase in sales tax, resulting in a record decline of new car sales in the following months.
Sales dropped 27 percent in September year-on-year and the average workers' salary was cut by 30 percent.
Statistics show the car industry has been slowing in Spain in recent years. Altogether, some 17,000 jobs have been lost in the past seven years.
