GM’s German division has announced a deal that will allow it to cut thousands of jobs in Germany while avoiding forced layoffs and offering incentives for employees to leave.
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Sources say that the number of jobs that Opel is looking to shed in Germany is between 9,500 and 10,000 over the next two years as GM Europe looks to stem losses.
The programme will encourage workers to leave voluntarily by offering them buyouts and help with retraining and job placement. Opel also said 15 percent of management jobs would be cut.
“The measures we have agreed together will restore our competitiveness in the auto sector,” Opel chief executive Hans Demant said in comments reported by Associated Press. “These cuts were not easy for anyone, but in the long term they will lead Opel to new successes.”
The AP report also said that the chief worker representative at Opel offered a different calculation of the job losses, saying the company plans to shed 6,500 jobs and shift others into part-time work, “spinoffs and joint ventures.”
Worker representative Klaus Franz told AP that under the deal a 50-year-old Opel worker with 30 years of service could expect severance pay of euro216,000 (US$287,000), full retirement benefits and a year of retraining, Franz said.
“Both sides expect this offer to be attractive for many employees,” he said, according to AP.
A report on Reuters said that GM has today (Thursday) confirmed the 12,000 jobs reduction target for its operations in Europe as a whole. Citing a spokesman at GM Europe’s Zurich HQ, the report also said that GM’s intention is to avoid plant closures and forced layoffs, but that plant closure is not ruled out and that it would only become clear ‘in a few months’ if forced layoffs could be prevented.
