Holden jobs in Victoria expected to go before Christmas, union says

Holden engineers in Victoria could lose their jobs before the end of the year as the car maker winds down its manufacturing in Australia.

The engineers union expects a large number of redundancies in the state but does not know how many.

"We are expecting a significant number of job cuts before Christmas," Professionals Australia Victorian branch president Sharelle Herrington told AAP.

"These are the people who develop the cars.

"Once it goes off into production, their part in the process is finished."

Holden spokesman Sean Poppitt said the company had said since announcing its withdrawal from Australian manufacturing it would scale down its workforce over time.

He would not speculate on the timing of redundancies or the number of employees affected.

"As announced last year, Holden's engineering workforce is largely tied to production of our locally manufactured vehicles and as such our engineering workforce will be scaled back over time through to 2017," Mr Poppitt said.