By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published Dec. 4, 2008

Auto parts maker Robert Bosch LLC has offered a voluntary severance package to the 2,100 employees at its North Charleston plant.

The privately held German company is facing an “overcapacity situation” and has offered the buyout as a “proactive opportunity.”

Employees have until Dec. 19 to decide whether to accept the company package, the terms of which Bosch is not disclosing, spokeswoman Becky MacDonald said.

Bosch's North Charleston plant on Dorchester Road near Summerville. (Photo/Robert Bosch LLC)

The company also is not willing to say how many employees it is attempting to cut via the severance package.

But MacDonald said that “there is definitely a possibility that we will have layoffs” if too few employees take the option.

Bosch opened the North Charleston facility in 1973. Workers there make power train components for the foreign and domestic automobile industries, which have been hammered by Detroit’s financial woes and the global credit crunch. The parts are sold directly to automakers and wholesale to other suppliers.

Bosch also will extend its normal seasonal shutdown by a few days, MacDonald said. The plant will be idle between Dec. 20 and Jan. 4.

“It’s usually just a couple of days shorter than that,” she said.

Recently, Bosch laid off 20 employees, and the company is eliminating all of its contract positions by year’s end, though “very few contractors” are employed by the company, MacDonald said.

Company executives are informing employees of the severance option during all three shifts Thursday.

Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.