Audi is offering sabbaticals to its 45,000-strong German work force.
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Employees at Audi’s Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm plants can take off between two and 18 months to pursue outside interests.
“We want to offer our employees the chance to work in a way that fits their life situation,” Josef Schelchshorn, an Audi personnel manager, told Automotive News Europe.
Schelchshorn thinks that workers who take a sabbatical will become more strongly committed to the car maker.
Currently 84 of Audi’s workers in Germany are on sabbatical and 20 others have signed a contract to start a long break. The employees’ reasons for taking a break include family commitments, further education and hobbies.
Audi signed a new wage and working conditions agreement last month with its German workers.
The company guaranteed jobs until 2011 after employee representatives agreed to allow more flexible working practices, including a system of shifting work back and forth between the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm plants.
