Berlin  - Just over 40 per cent of the 165,000-strong Daimler workforce in Germany will be on short-time from April 1, the company's management board chief Dieter Zetsche said Wednesday.

Zetsche said some 68,000 employees will be on reduced working hours as a result of the global turndown that has led to a crippling decline in sales of new cars.

The car industry was facing its worst crisis this century and could only hope to recover if all sides pulled together, he said, urging unions to support the management's course of action.

Zetsche was speaking three days after Daimler announced that it had sold a 9.1-per-cent stake in the carmaker to Abu Dhabi state-owned Aabar Investments in the United Arab Emirates.

Daimler, maker of Mercedes cars, sold 25 per cent fewer vehicles in the first two months of 2009 compared to a year ago and expects to record an operating loss for the first quarter. Last year, profits slumped by nearly two-thirds to 1.4 billion euros (1.8 billion dollars).