MOSCOW, July 28 (Reuters) - Russia's AvtoVAZ, partly owned by France's Renault, denied on Tuesday it plans large-scale layoffs after suppliers said the company told them it was overstaffed by about 25 percent, or 27,000 workers.
"It is not realistic," said Avtovaz's president, Boris Alyoshin.
The company also denied huge job cut plans. "No such figure was announced. AvtoVAZ is currently not planning to lay off workers," said spokesman Igor Krotov.
AvtoVAZ held a meeting with regional officials of the Samara Volga region, where its production facilities are located, and suppliers on Tuesday.
Two participants in the meeting told Reuters the company, which faces dwindling demand for its clunky Lada models, said it had a huge surplus of staff.
One source, who was present at the meeting, said the company was seeking to fire 27,691 people. Another source affirmed the figure while adding the company was describing the staff surplus rather than a plan for layoffs.
AvtoVAZ has already decided this month to halt production for a month during August, sending employees on holiday on two-thirds of average pay.
The reduced hours and factory stoppages come as Russian companies seek to avoid more job cuts and potentially spark social tensions after years of stability during the past decade of economic boom.
Russia's car sales are expected to halve this year as consumers tighten belts because of job and salary cuts during the country's first recession in a decade. The crisis and the credit crunch have also made loans hard to come by, both for car manufacturers and for would-be car buyers.
A source at Tuesday's Samara meeting told Ria Novosti news agency Avtovaz plans to cut 2009 car output to 293,000 vehicles from 801,000 in 2008. (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Greg Mahlich)