Holden slashes its competitive edge, sacks engineers in latest round of restructuring HOLDEN is sacking design engineers in the latest blow to the long-term future of Australia's car industry. The car giant has refused to say how many jobs will go, but confirmed they will mainly come from its Port Melbourne head office. Sources said close to 45 high-skilled jobs had been lost. It is the first time in the recent round of redundancies that the company has targeted its white-collar engineers, who were seen as the Australian operation's competitive edge. It comes after Holden slashed 500 staff in May and a further 370 last year, despite agreeing to a $275 million government bailout. Holden spokeswoman Andrea Matthews refused to give a number on the cuts, but said that people sacked had been told. Some office staff were expected to go in the shake up, she added. Ms Matthews referred to a prepared statement to explain the redundancies "To ensure the best opportunity for Holden to be successful, we have made the difficult decision to restructure our salaried workforce," the statement said. At Holden, we are doing all we can to ensure we have a strong future as a design, engineering and manufacturing centre. It is never easy to make changes like these but we have to take these steps to protect Holden's long-term future in Australia. The company informed its corporate workforce and unions about the forced redundancies on Thursday. Victoria will bear the brunt of the cuts with jobs lost in South Australia also part of the same division. The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia said it was disappointing to see engineering jobs leaving the automotive industry. Holden now employs 4200 staff across all operations; manufacturing now has 1700 workers and there are close to 500 engineers. The announcement follows an historic "yes" vote by Holden's factory workers to a new enterprise bargaining agreement aimed at delivering $15 million in savings through improved productivity and fixed pay levels for the next three years. Holden is facing an uphill task for survival with the new Liberal government likely to follow through on its pre-election promise to cut $500 million from car industry handouts. Holden boss Mike Devereux has warned of shutting down manufacturing operations if that happens.