The car manufacturer Opel, acquired by the French PSA Group, wants to save on personnel costs – through early retirement and short-time work. Now there is an agreement with the workers.
Opel at a Peugeot dealer
Friday, 15.12.2017
12:42 clock
Opel has met with works council and union a comprehensive social agreement. This should reduce personnel and labor costs in the German plants. Among other things, the agreement offers employees early retirement and partial retirement.
According to the agreement, the working time should be cut from an average of currently 40 hours to the collectively agreed 35 hours per week, said Opel, the works council and the IG metal together with. At the same time Opel announced again the intention to renounce factory closures and operational layoffs.
The daughter of the French PSA Group also intends to expand its semi-retirement program, among other things, to the 1960 vintage. “We also offer early retirement schemes for people 36 months before earliest possible retirement,” said Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller. “We think that’s a good and time-unlimited offer that all our employees can choose from.”
Number of temporary workers should be reduced
Employees and employers also agreed to join the Administration and Development departments in the first half of the year short-time workingto apply. Temporary workers have to leave the plants in Rüsselsheim and Kaiserslautern. At the Eisenach plant, the already approved short-time work will be continued.
More details about the planned short-time working were not mentioned. There was also no information about the number of jobs to be saved.
Head of Works Council Wolfgang Schäfer-Klug called the agreements on partial retirement and early retirement attractive. “It is also important that the co-determination and existing collective agreements are fully taken into account for the next steps.”
Opel wants quickly become significantly more profitable, The automaker was in the summer taken over by the French PSA Groupafter nearly nine decades with US General Motors. The new owners made saving targets of initially 1.1 billion euros annually. Significant savings should be made by the already announced merger of the purchasebe achieved. Opel currently employs some 19,000 people at its German locations.