Nissan Spain to cut 600 jobs from Barcelona plant

MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish arm of Japanese carmaker Nissan has reached an agreement with unions to cut 600 jobs at its plant in Barcelona, or almost 20 percent of the plant's workforce.

The layoffs, a mixture of voluntary redundancies and early retirements over the next year, were a condition for a planned investment of 70 million euros (60.34 million pounds) in a new painting facility, Nissan said in a statement on Thursday.

Nissan, which has five plants and employs around 5,000 people in Spain, reached the agreement after more than a month of negotiations with unions.

As part of the deal, any further changes to the workforce are to be negotiated separately with unions.

(Reporting by Sam Edwards; Editing by Mark Potter)