Agence France-Presse . Chicago

US automaker General Motors said Tuesday it planned to offer voluntary buyouts to all 74,000 members of its union-represented US workforce, as it posted its biggest annual loss ever.

GM reported Tuesday that it had lost a record 38.7 billion dollars in 2007, mostly due to a writedown in accumulated tax credits in the third quarter that were expected to expire unused.

The employee buyouts would permit GM to make a further transformation of its workforce after years of painful reorganization in the face of eroding market share, especially in North America. The company said it was offering 140,000 dollars to employees with more than 10 years of service and 70,000 dollars to others.

GM is offering early-retirement pension incentives of 45,000 dollars for production employees or 62,500 dollars for skilled trade workers. Eligible employees can select from a variety of ways to receive their incentive.

The plan is an expansion of an agreement with the United Auto Workers union on a 'comprehensive special attrition program.'

'We've worked with our UAW partners to ensure our employees have a variety of attractive options to consider,' said Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive. 'The special attrition program is an important initiative that will help us transform the workforce.'

The offer is the second effort to reshape the workforce since 2006, when GM offered voluntary buyouts to its 113,000 workers, a plan accepted by 30,000. Virtually all of the company's 2007 loss was the result of a massive accounting charge.

GM in the third quarter decided to write down the nearly 39 billion dollars in accumulated tax credits when it realized it might not be able to earn enough money to use them before they expire.

Excluding special items, GM's loss was a more modest 23 million dollars, or four cents per share, on revenues of 181 billion dollars.

In the fourth quarter, GM reported a net loss of 722 million dollars, or 1.28 dollars per share, with results affected by a variety of special charges and tax benefits.

Excluding special items, the results would translate to a profit of 46 million dollars, or eight cents a share, on revenues of 47.1 billion. Wagoner said 2007 was a year 'of important progress for GM, as we implemented further significant structural cost reductions in North America, grew aggressively in emerging markets, negotiated an historic labor contract with our UAW partners in the US, advanced development of a broad range of advanced propulsion technologies and most importantly, introduced a series of breakthrough cars and trucks around the world.'

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