About 300 employees of BYD Co. have signed onto a class-action lawsuit against the automaker over recent layoffs, Yangcheng Evening News reported Friday.

BYD, the Chinese battery and auto maker backed by billionaire Warren Buffett, recently started to "redeploy" employees in its auto sales unit. However, rumors have been circulating that the "redeployment" strategy is just a cover-up for the company's layoff moves.

BYD has been avoiding using terms like "layoff" in its official statements and the personnel redeployment will not be limited to the auto sales unit, Caixin Magazine quoted a BYD employee as saying.

However, according to Yangcheng Evening News, BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu confirmed the recent layoffs at a temporary shareholders meeting on September 9. Executives at BYD's auto sales company continued to deny the layoff rumors.

BYD employees involved in the "personnel deployment" have called on their co-workers to petition to protect their rights. "Based on our preliminary statistics, over 200 people have signed up," said one BYD employee. 20 employee representatives have already joined a class-action lawsuit, the report said.

In the first half of this year, BYD sold 220,000 cars, down 23.4 percent year-on-year. As a result, its net profits dropped 88.6 percent to 275 million yuan.

China's business press carried the story above on Friday.