The VW works council is resisting the wage cuts demanded by the company. Personnel expenses only accounted for 17 percent of all costs in the group, according to a special edition of the works council newspaper “Mitdeterminieren”, which is available to the German Press Agency. “Just criticizing labor costs is unfair,” writes the employee representatives. “All cost levers should be taken into account! And all the problems too.”
The works council calculates that the difference between the VW company tariff and the otherwise usual industry tariff is much smaller than the 10 percent cut demanded by VW. The starting salary for an engineer at VW is 69,280.50 euros per year, and in the area tariff it is 67,715.00 euros. The gap is therefore 2.3 percent. According to the information, employees in production at VW earn 55,078.50 euros per year, or 50,454 or 54,947 euros in the industry tariff, depending on the classification. “Compared to the regional tariff in this country, we are hardly any different,” writes the works council.
The company contradicted the statement. “The company cannot confirm the labor costs published by the works council or the comparisons used,” said a VW spokeswoman when asked by the German Press Agency. “Taking all relevant cost components into account, a much more differentiated picture emerges. The labor costs of the Volkswagen AG are significantly above the industry comparison.” Labor costs are also only part of the planned efficiency measures. “Volkswagen AG’s performance programs are designed holistically.”
Volkswagen is demanding a 10 percent wage cut for the core VW brand
Europe’s largest car manufacturer is demanding a 10 percent wage cut for the core VW brand in the current collective bargaining round. In addition, the group wants to reduce various allowances and bonuses, including the previous bonuses for company anniversaries. The IG Metall on the other hand, demands 7 percent more money. Collective bargaining talks will continue on November 21st. The VW in-house tariff applies to around 120,000 employees at the six large West German VW locations in Lower Saxony and Hesse.