Thyssenkrupp management agrees to discuss restructuring with workers

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp managers have agreed to discuss potential restructuring measures including whether cost cuts, site closures and other measures are necessary at the industrial group's European steel business, a labour boss said.

"We have accomplished that we will get clarity now," Wilhelm Segerath, who represents the works council on Thyssenkrupp's supervisory board, told Reuters on Thursday.

A day after Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe's supervisory board met to debate the business's future, Segerath said management and the works council would set up a task force to resolve questions of consolidation and restructuring by the end of September.

"But we have to keep the antennas tuned. If there is no agreement then there will be further protests," he said.

Several thousand steel workers had marched on Thyssenkrupp's steel headquarters in Duisburg to voice their concern over management's plans for a merger of its European steel business with that of Tata Steel as well as possible site closures.

Thyssenkrupp labour leaders have said that any plan to close some plants could go ahead irrespective of whether there is a merger deal.

(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Writing by Maria Sheahan; editing by Susan Thomas)