OSAKA -- Sanyo Electric Co. plans to dispatch employees to companies outside its group to cope with a surplus worker problem, company officials said Wednesday.

The company's management and labor union have already agreed on the plan, which the consumer electronics maker hopes to implement in spring, the officials said.

Sanyo expects it will have too many workers in the future, particularly in its manufacturing sector, and hopes that dispatching some employees to other companies will help to avoid layoffs.

The employees will be dispatched for up to one year to companies in all industries outside of the Sanyo Electric group, and not necessarily to electric machinery makers, the officials said.

In the early 1990s, Hitachi Ltd. took a similar measure amid the slump in the semiconductor sector, dispatching some of its workers to truck maker Hino Motors Ltd.

Separately, Sanyo officials said the company plans to lower the age requirement for its system whereby retirement money equivalent to up to 43 months of wages is paid to workers who opt to leave the company rather than accept a transfer to a different location.

The system is currently for employees age 50 or older, but as of Jan. 20, Sanyo plans to make it available to workers age 35 and above who have spent 10 or more years at the company.