Opel company pension
The topic is highly sensitive because it is about huge sums. Opel puts the pension assets of its German employees in 2018 at more than 2.3 billion euros.
(Photo: Reuters)
Munich plant closings, job cuts, salary cuts: The corona crisis hits the auto industry “particularly hard”, writes OpelHR Manager Ralph Wangemann in a mail from last Friday to his 15,000 employees. Sales of the brand with the Blitz have plummeted by up to 90 percent. It is not foreseeable when the situation will improve. “However, we assume that the consequences of this crisis will occupy the entire industry for years to come,” said Wangemann.
With these dramatic words, the Opel– Labor Director prepared his troop for further cuts. To “protect the company” stand at PSA– daughter all expenses on the test bench.
Even the largest property is no longer taboo. Concerned the recent austerity measures at Opel such as the closure of transmission manufacturing only a few hundred employees, the latest cut plans are aimed at the entire workforce.
Specifically, Wangemann considers a “modernization” of the company pension scheme at the traditional Hessian company to be “imperative”. The existing agreements are “a major cost factor”. The manager therefore announced that he would like to start negotiations with the works council quickly. But the employee representatives indignantly reject Wangemann’s requests.
“Steer clear of the Opel pension scheme,” says a circular that the works council sent to the workforce on Tuesday morning and that is available to the Handelsblatt. The interest representatives around the works council chief Uwe Baum speak of an “attack”, which leads to the fact that the “already damaged bond with Opel continues to decrease”. It was a “sad event”, the indignation in the workforce was great.
“The general works council rejects the deterioration of the pension,” it says in the letter. The employee representatives also emphasize that the “lion’s share” of the financing of old-age pension provision General Motors (GM) is worn.
As PSA in the summer of 2017 Opel from GM bought, the European pension plans for existing Opel pensioners have actually remained with GM. The Americans have also transferred three billion euros in PSA to meet future pension obligations.
Opel Personnel Manager Wangemann emphasizes that the announced cuts relate only to future pension modules: “Claims that have already been acquired will remain intact.” According to Wangemann, Opel company pensions are “significantly above the market standard”.
The carmaker guarantees its German employees an annual return of five percent, according to corporate circles. Against the background of the current low interest rates, this guarantee represents a considerable burden, the management argues.
The works council, on the other hand, points out that the cost of retirement benefits has already dropped considerably in recent years due to the loss of thousands of jobs. Due to the many voluntary departures, Opel Automobile GmbH even generated earnings of 35.4 million in 2018, according to the annual financial statements.
At the same time, Opel had to set up almost 65 million euros in pension provisions and spend a good 180 million euros on interest payments from the pension obligation.
Huge sums and drastic words
The topic is highly sensitive because it is about huge sums. Opel puts the pension assets of its German employees in 2018 at more than 2.3 billion euros. The money is managed by Allianz Treuhand GmbH.
In the past decades, the works councils have defended the very good conditions of the Opel pension, which can sometimes be a third or even half higher than the statutory pension, in the workers’ camp. “This is one of our key acquisitions.”
Management’s cut-back plans and trade unionists see the plans for cuts as a “blow to the office”. Some stakeholders even speak of something like the “maximum possible demoralization”, the managers would use the corona crisis as an excuse to justify drastic savings.
The management team, on the other hand, feels misunderstood. Personnel manager Wangemann asks for your understanding. Because it is about nothing less than “securing the future of our company in this dramatic economic crisis”. In the current situation, cuts in pensions are also inevitable.
In Rüsselsheim there is once again a bitter struggle for power between the management of Opel boss Michael Lohscheller and the works council. No compromise lines are currently discernible. On the contrary: the tone becomes rougher and sometimes even personal.
“Where is the contribution of Opel management in the crisis described by the management? For example, are there any cuts in pension plans? ”Asks the works council in a letter to the workforce. Such formulations cause displeasure in the management team, after all every change affects the retirement provision All managers, too, say in corporate circles.
At the same time, the works councils accuse the management of lack of transparency. An employee survey from the previous year was still not published. “Many colleagues suspect that the poll results are so bad that they led to the voluntary success bonus of 600 euros,” the employee representatives say.
The mutual accusations show how deep the trenches between the camps are now. Insiders fear that the new power struggle for company pensions will paralyze cooperation in Rüsselsheim for months – to the detriment of everyone.
More: Opel will build PSA cars for the first time in Rüsselsheim.