Some 10-15% of all automotive jobs could be lost in Germany, according to one analyst. The warning follows statements from Daimler’s works council that flexible working agreements with workers may not suffice to reduce working hours, which means that jobs may be on the line.
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Willi Diez, director of the institute for automotive economics (Institut für Automobilwirtschaft), in Geislingen, estimated that around 115,000 jobs could be at risk. “The automotive industry will no longer function as the employment engine of the economy,” Diez told German press agency dpa/AFX.
Diez said that one reason is that the German automotive industry has failed to develop any leadership in hybrid technologies but the main reason is the US market, where German manufacturers have built up their businesses in recent years. The market there has fallen from 16.5m to around 12.5m this year. Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen are affected most.
Daimler works council head Erich Klemm warned in a works council newspaper that job cuts could be on the agenda from January.
He said that if sales of Mercedes cars did not pick up by the end of the year, working time accounts would no longer suffice and new solutions would have to be found. In the recent past, when production has fallen, Daimler has been able to adjust production downwards using flexible working time accounts, without employees having to lose money. But after the Christmas holidays some accounts will have reached the critical level of -200 hours.
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By GlobalDataSo far this year 45,000 fewer cars have been produced compared to what had originally been planned. According to Automobilwoche, some lines at Daimler’s largest plant in Sindelfingen have been operating at just one shift a day since the summer. Lines are also shut down often on Fridays. All production workers will start their Christmas break on 16 December and they have not yet been given a date to start back after the holidays. The newspaper said Mercedes was trying to cut a further 35,000 units of production.
Klemm blamed management decisions for the situation the company currently finds itself in. He said that Mercedes “is suffering from bad decisions made by previous management, who did not recognise the importance of environmental issues.” He said that, as a result, Daimler does not currently have the right products for the market. One example was the start-stop system that the board did not take up because it was too expensive. “We were ahead of our time with this technology,” said Klemm.
