Volkswagen is looking at consolidating its component factories into one division and then hiving this new unit off at a later date, German press reported on Thursday (20 July).
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Financial Times Deutschland said such a move could significantly reduce staff costs, as it would offer a way out of the company’s costly in-house pay structure. There may be union opposition to such a move, however, the report speculated.
As reported by just-auto earler this month, Volkswagen and its main trade union, IG Metall, have agreed to talks on working time, labour costs and capacity utilisation in an effort to jointly improve the company’s competitiveness and safeguard jobs, and break an existing framework agreement that guarantees 100,000 jobs until 2011.
Volkswagen has been seeking a new agreement in the light of recent heavy financial losses, and the recognition that it has become uncompetitive. The two sides have been locked in dispute for several months about how to proceed. Earlier this year, Volkswagen CEO Wolfgang Bernard said that up to 20,000 jobs at the company needed to go, particularly in (in-house) component production.
In a statement, Volkswagen said that as a prelude to the up-coming talks, the company and its works council would conclude a framework agreement on the procedure for component production and the introduction of a new work organisation at Volkswagen AG.
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