Opel development center
2,000 out of 6,500 engineers and skilled workers currently working for Opel are expected to leave the company.
MünchenMonatelang was around the technological heart from Opel wrestled. Two weeks ago The management and works council then agreed to thathow to reduce the high overcapacity in the ITEZ development center.
The peace pact states: 2000 of 6500 engineers and skilled workersthat is up to date for Opel tinkering with the innovations of tomorrow will leave the company. However, they have the right to vote: they either switch to the French development service provider Segula as planned, or they say goodbye to partial retirement, early retirement and severance pay.
Martin Lange, Germany boss of Segula, responded with relief to the agreement: “The blockade is solved,” he exulted. “In the second quarter, we will launch the Engineering Campus in Rüsselsheim.”
The manager was convinced that he could win enough Opel for his project. “Good would be 1500 or more,” said Lange.
Current club events
In fact, there is much to suggest that the governor of the Nanterre-based family business near Paris is likely to attract only a fraction of the targeted staff. And the schedules have long been waste.
Since April 1, the Opel can choose between the different variants. According to information from the Handelsblatt from group of companies, more than one thousand employees have already arranged a consultation appointment to Opel to leave. They are interested in the three programs for voluntary redundancies, but not in Segula.
It is true that counseling talks do not ultimately conclude how many Opel employees will actually accept severance pay or whether they will go into or early retirement. But they are a clear indication that the willingness to show Segula the red card, it says in corporate circles.
Segula Germany boss Lange advertises undoubtedly for his project. He wants to develop Segula with the Opel engineers to a “general developer for vehicles” and grow rapidly. In large-format advertisements in local newspapers he advertises for trust and invites to “Coffee Talks” in the Opel development center.
At least with some old-established Opelians, that does not go down well. For a long time they often describe themselves as “arrogant”. It disturbs that Segula wants to take over the wage structure and dismissal protection of Opel until 2023, but not the surface collective agreement of the IG metal,
The draft of a collective agreement, which the IG metal last reached, is a “not negotiable offer,” it says in trade union circles. Segula – go home, the industrialists of the IG Metall threw Segula recently in a resolution.
Lange is now trying to break the fronts in the workforce by selectively hiring executives like Rudi Spiess, who is currently responsible for ITEZ production as Executive Director.
Around 100 direct applications and more than 200 interested parties have previously reported to Segula, explains a company spokesman. The French see this as a success. But far more than a thousand Opelans actually choose another option, the whole transaction is eligible.
“We came to stay”
One thing is certain: the number of Opel workers who are expected to leave the ITEZ – whether to Segula, retire or other companies – is capped at 2030 employees. All those who accept a severance pay can not switch directly to Segula afterwards. “This option is not provided,” explains an Opel spokesman. The fewer employees change to Segula, the more questionable the whole deal and its conditions.
Opel has already cost the deal, according to the annual report of the French parent company PSA (Peugeot, Citroën) 2018 already ten million euros. In the next few years, Opel also wants to grant its potential partner Segula a dowry in the amount of 300 million euros. In the group, questions are gradually being asked, for which actually.
In any case, the union and works council are of the opinion that the French are obsolete on the company premises and that the overcapacities can also be reduced by other means. Will Opel pull the deal with Segula at any cost?
Anyway, the French say they want to continue: “We came to stay,” says a spokesman. If there are too few Opel workers to recruit, Planula plans to hire vacancies as Plan B to gain a critical size for the envisaged engineering campus.
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But it is clear: It will take longer than expected. Originally Opel and Segula wanted to seal the closing of their partnership at the end of May. The deadlines in the three-stage election process and additional bureaucratic effort, but nothing, it is in group circles.
In the first step, the Opelans now have three weeks to choose between Segula and the other options. The only exceptions are the employees from the fields of design and toolmaking as well as some key employees.
In a second step, the management can give employees who are eligible for a transfer of business to Segula a second chance to choose, according to an internal Opel presentation available to Handelsblatt. The offer duration is two weeks.
Only in a third step, all those who have chosen in the first two stages, no other option, a new business to be founded, “which will be transferred to Segula later”, as it says in the presentation. But even then, the employees still have a period of opposition of four weeks – but they no longer have a claim for severance pay.
All in all, the procedure will last until at least the end of June. The result: Instead of the second quarter, the closing will take place at the earliest in the third quarter – if at all.
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