Volkswagen has proposed to unions that employees return to a 35 hour week to improve the competitiveness of its plants in Germany, according to finanzen.net. Employees currently work a 28.8 hour week.
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The proposal was made at a preliminary meeting between management and metal workers union, IG Metall, in Hannover yesterday, ahead of future wage negotiations.
Volkswagen is launching a major product offensive but wants to bring its German wage costs down to internationally acceptable levels, according to VW’s personnel director Horst Neumann.
The carmaker’s in-house wage agreement with IG Metall reached in November 2004, however, does not permit forced layoffs for any of the 100,000 workers in the company’s six western German plants until 2012.
A second meeting between management and unions is planned but no date has yet been announced. Wage negotiations will not take place until preliminary agreements on how Volkswagen plans to reduce labour costs and reduce the workforce by 20,000 as management announced earlier in the year.
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By GlobalDataAccording to dpa-AFX news, Volkswagen is not offering any additional pay for extending the week to 35 hours. Union official, Hartmut Meine, has said this would not be acceptable.
The original decision to work a shorter working week dates back to a 1993 agreement, which was reached to save 30,000 jobs. Volkswagen’s workforce has remained unchanged at 100,000 since then.
Volkswagen management appears to believe that productivity would be higher if its workforce worked a 35 hour week. Neumann said that he has proposed a three-part plan to the union that concerns productivity, wage costs and capacity utilisation. He said that Volkswagen must improve its competitiveness in each of those three areas. Neumann added that some component production would have to cease, although he was not more specific.
Neumann also said that the board is committed to keeping as many jobs in Germany as possible. Golf production should stay in Wolfsburg. But productivity and quality must be improved, and that there needs to be a better atmosphere in the plant with more ‘drive’ or ‘pizazz’.
Volkswagen brand boss Wolfgang Bernard is looking for results by the end of the year.
Unions are looking for a fair balance between competitiveness and job security, and want to ensure that employees are not punished for management mistakes. IG Metall is therefore demanding suggestions for optimising products and processes, according to dpa-AFX news.
Volkswagen is already showing signs of recovery. Brand sales were up 15% in the first five months of the year, but Volkswagen marketing chief Michael Kern has complained that margins are under pressure because of high costs.
