UPDATE 2-Commerzbank board member says prepare to slice 10,000 work ‘simply crazy’

(Updates with element, context, no remark from finance ministry)

FRANKFURT, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Stefan Wittmann, who sits on Commerzbank’s supervisory board as a labour agent, claimed on Friday that strategies to reduce 10,000 work opportunities had been “simply crazy”.

Wittmann’s comment, produced to Reuters as the board embarks on discussions about a radical overhaul proposed by administration, indicates a tense showdown is in retail outlet.

The supervisory board is owing to talk about over the future handful of days the plans that were produced general public on Thursday by Commerzbank’s new main executive Manfred Knof. He would like a last final decision on Feb. 3.

At stake is one in 3 employment in Germany at the nation’s No. 2 loan company. The government continue to owns a 15% stake soon after a bailout throughout the previous monetary disaster, and the subject of position cuts is specifically delicate in an election yr.

Wittmann, an formal with the Verdi labour union, stated strategies to slash branches from 800 to 450 was “going in the proper direction”.

But carrying out a lot more with fewer people was not a recipe for accomplishment in the very long term, he claimed.

A spokeswoman for Commerzbank declined to comment on Wittmann’s remarks.

The German finance ministry also declined to comment on the restructuring strategy. (Reporting by Tom Sims added reporting by Christian Kraemer in Berlin editing by Thomas Seythal and Maria Sheahan)