Airbus says no forced redundancies in Germany until end 2016

Airbus is cutting the equivalent of around 5,300 jobs in total as part of a restructuring of its defense and space activities, with Germany to bear the brunt of the job cuts.

The agreement, which covers around 2,550 employees in Germany, was communicated to employees on Wednesday morning, an Airbus spokesman told Reuters.

Measures that will be used to avoid compulsory redundancies include early retirement and moving staff internally, the spokesman added.

Airbus is negotiating with works councils in each of the countries that are affected by the cuts including France, Spain and Britain.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by William Hardy)