Germany: IG-Metall and Volkswagen sign pact on job security through 2014 for 95,000 German employees

Job security through 2014. While the German economy is in slow motion, Volkswagen’s assembly lines are working full speed and the company is affording the luxury of granting job security to 95,000 employers in its western German plants until 2014. This measure is the center of the job security agreement presented on Tuesday, February 16th, in Hanover, by Horst Neumann, Volkswagen’s director of personnel and Harmut Meine, leader of the IG-Metall in Lower-Saxony. In exchange for this guarantee, which affects 91,300 employees in six west-German plants and 3,900 employees at Volkswagen Financial Services, Volkswagen’s management obtained the introduction of a wage component related to individual performances as well as an agreement on increased productivity via annual commitments at the level of each plant. For the moment, no details were given as to the future amount of the variable pay component or the level of increased productivity. Nevertheless, the German media advances an average of 10% annually. Mr. Meine says this major compromise isn’t a problem. “Employees support productivity increases and aren’t afraid for their jobs since they have job security” he explained. The agreement provides for an agreement on job security for the 7,900 employees of the Zwickau, Chemnitz and Dresden plants in eastern Germany, which will be negotiated by March 8. Then, the company will deal with the issue of its other German employees, mainly Audi’s (70,000 people). Regarding apprenticeship, VW promised to maintain its annual offer to 1,250 places (+ 40 for the financial subsidiary) and to guarantee employment after the three years of training. Thus, for five year, VW commits to train 6,450 apprentices.