Renault Samsung Motors was unable to induce the targeted number of its employees to opt for early retirement program, corporate sources said Monday, which the company said is intended to restructure its workforce for better productivity.

Insiders said only around 20 workers applied for the program as of Friday. The company received applications from March 10 and expected about 160 to apply.

The “New Start” program was initiated after the carmaker, the local unit of French automaker Renault S.A., said it will hold off automatic promotion this year for people who have been on the job for more than 20 years and accept early retirement from among some 500 senior car assembly line workers.

The company’s usual practice was to promote production workers automatically and give them management positions, taking them off the assembly lines. Such a move, if implemented this year, can undermine productivity, the company said.

It said if automatic promotions are pushed forward, the percentage of senior-ranking workers not engaged in actual production will account for 33 percent of the 2,100 workers assigned to the assembly line and maintenance positions at the company’s main Busan plant. (Yonhap)