DETROIT, March 6 (Reuters) - Construction has been delayed for Tesla Motors Inc's giant $5 billion battery plant in Nevada, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported on Friday, citing a couple of union job postings.

A national job board for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers updated its listing for "Project Tiger" - the initial code name for the factory - to indicate a change in demand for electricians, the newspaper said.

"The Tiger project has been cut back by 80 percent at this time," it quoted the IBEW post as saying. "This is all subject to change."

A local branch of the union in Reno, Nevada, also posted a message about the plant on its job referral page, the paper said. "The major project in the area has been delayed at this time. Further updates will be posted as soon as we know more," the paper quoted a post by the IBEW Local 401 site as saying.

The company declined to tell the paper whether there had been a change in plans for the site and disputed reports of delays, saying the project was on track.

A Tesla spokeswoman could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said last month that the company remains "on plan" to begin battery production in 2016 at the plant outside Reno.

A spokesman for the local IBEW union declined to comment to the Reno Gazette-Journal. An officer with the Building & Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada told the paper that there had been a reduction in hours but declined further comment.

The paper said the common reason for the delay was a change in design plans for the plant. An unidentified source told the paper that the situation is more of a short-term delay.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Paul Simao)