PSA and Opel say they have informed unions of plans to discuss a potential partnership with engineering service provider, Segula Technologies, which could see up to 2,000 jobs transfer to the solutions provider.
The move is in response to what Opel refers to as a “heavily decreasing workload” from third parties and is designed it says, to protect engineering jobs.
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The Segula Technologies proposal aims at creating a European engineering campus and Centre of Excellence in Rüsselsheim, enlarging the scope beyond the automotive industry and including fields such as rail and energy as reflected by its customer portfolio.
An agreement on such a partnership would include the takeover of vehicle and propulsion engineering facilities together with up to 2,000 employees of the Rüsselsheim R&D Centre by Segula Technologies.
Segula is willing to continue the protection against dismissal agreed until July, 2023. The implementation of the potential partnership is subject to successful further negotiations with Segula Technologies and the social partners as well as the approvals of various bodies including the supervisory board of Opel.
“We have evaluated a solution in the context of a heavily decreasing workload from external parties in our R&D Centre,” said Opel CEO, Michael Lohscheller.
“Our duty and priority as a responsible management team has been to work hard on a project to safeguard highly qualified engineering jobs here in Rüsselsheim, while continuing to proudly develop our Opel future models and perform the tasks of the 15 Centres of Competence for the entire Groupe PSA. We will discuss this proposal of a strategic partnership with our social partners in detail.”
For his part, Segula Technologies Group managing director, Laurent German added: “The potential partnership is key to achieving our aim of becoming the world’s leading automotive solutions provider by 2023 with the creation of a core engineering centre in Rüsselsheim, whose scope would also cover new areas beyond the automotive industry to serve our customers worldwide.
“The recognised skills of the Opel engineers combined with Segula Technologies’ know-how, would allow us to set the standard and contribute to the development of the local economy in the long run to meet our customer expectations in all our fields of activity.”
