Maruti Udyog Ltd, India's biggest carmaker, on Monday said its 1,251 employees have recently opted for voluntary retirement scheme.

This has brought down the size of the workforce by 27 per cent to 3,355 employees, a company release said.

"There were 4,606 employees in the company prior to the launch of the scheme. On account of the voluntary retirement scheme, the number came down to 3,355 employees," Maruti Udyog said, adding that the payback period would be just over two years.

The VRS was offered in two phases for non-unionised and unionised workers.

A total of 276 non-unionised employees like supervisors, executives and managers opted for the first phase of the scheme during September 22 and October 18, 2003.

From November 19 to December 6, the second phase of VRS, 975 unionised workers like technicians and assistants took voluntary retirement.

MUL had offered its first VRS in October 2001, which was accepted by 1,050 employees or 19 per cent of the total employees.

That had reduced the workforce to 4,596 from 5,646 employees, which, MUL said, had helped it to improve productivity and reduce cost.