30.05.2018 Ι After weeks of disputes with the management, the Opelers have progressed a bit yesterday. The Group assures employees protection against dismissal and investments that secure the future of all locations.
The General Works Council, the Bochum works council and the IG Metall district center have agreed on key points with the Opel management on Tuesday. According to this, a maximum of 3,700 jobs may be lost, on a voluntary basis only: through partial retirement, early retirement and severance pay. This scale is already almost reached.
A total of around 19,500 people work at Opel, at sites in Rüsselsheim, Kaiserslautern, Eisenach, Bochum and Dudenhofen. The remaining employees are protected until summer 2023 against redundancies. In addition, investments are to be made in all locations to secure their existence and employment.
Green light for Eisenach
As a first measure, investments in Eisenach for the Grandland X including a hybrid variant will be released. The management had deferred them in the past and declared that they would only make them if the employees made concessions on income. For this she had received the accusation of extortion from IG Metall. She and the works councils had strictly rejected the waiver of income without consideration.
However, changes in production following the change from the former Opel owner General Motors to the French PSA group result in productivity gains in Eisenach that have an impact on personnel requirements. This is taken into account in the cornerstones. They envisage that a maximum of 450 jobs will be reduced. Who goes, does that voluntarily.
Details regulate collective agreements
In return, workers are prepared to make concessions on their income. The tariff additional allowance, which the Opelaner would receive after the collective agreement starting from January 2019, is suspended. The remaining pay increases will be delayed from 2020 onwards.
The voluntary severance pay, which has already been agreed with the management, is released by the general works council. This is to end the severance program. Excluded are the areas of parts storage, product and drive development.
All other details are governed by collective agreements and collective agreements.
Opel must remain strong brand
“Opel must be maintained as a strong German brand,” says Jörg Hofmann, the first chairman of IG Metall. With the results achieved on Tuesday, “an important step has been taken in securing all locations,” he comments. “After a long period of insecurity” the employees “finally got prospects for the future”.
The general works council chairman Wolfgang Schäfer-Klug is satisfied. “We’ve finally gotten what we’ve been asking for a long time,” security for employees through job protection for the next five years and investments that secure the future of all German locations. “Now some peace and quiet can return to the company.”
Jörg Köhlinger, the district manager of IG Metall in the district of Mitte, where most Opel sites are located, sees the agreement as an “important milestone”. It creates “the conditions to accompany a good future development of the company” Opel Automobile “with collective agreements.”