Portugal: a new company agreement for the Volkswagen Palmela factory

Autoeuropa/Volkswagen management and the workers’ commission of the German car factory near Lisbon have signed a new company agreement. The workers have won a 2% pay rise, currently something quite rare in the country and they also succeeded in getting 400 workers, who were either on temporary contracts or in unstable employment, reinstated on permanent contracts. The company has also agreed to hold off from group dismissals until the end of 2015. Because Volkswagen Palmela is waiting for the green light to build a new car model, this agreement is valid for only one year contrary to previous agreements that had been valid for two years.
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Pay rise. After a ‘difficult’ month of talks, management of the Volkswagen factory near Lisbon together with the workers’ commission came to an agreement. The workers succeeded in winning a 2% pay rise that will apply retroactively to October 1 2014. The agreement states that the minimum pay rise will be 20 € per month. This is an important move given both the economic context and the fact that salaries for most private sector employees have been frozen. Previously, the pay rise had been set a

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