A new work model will be applied in the first quarter that involves reducing manufacturing in one of the three work shifts
BILBAO, Nov. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The management of the Mercedes-Benz Álava plant has transferred this Friday to the works council its intention to dispense with a large part of the temporary staff, which currently consists of half a thousand workers, and implement a new work model which involves reducing the manufacturing speed of one of the three work shifts, as reported by the committee in a statement.
Thus, after a meeting between the management and the workers’ representatives, the committee explained that the company has proposed a new work model that would be applied, in principle, for the first quarter and that “whose most direct consequence is the to dispense with a large part of the current “temporary staff, which is made up of 500 people.
In principle, the figure has not been specified, but union sources have indicated that the company will dispense with “the maximum they can” and that in December the contracts will not be renewed for many of them.
As explained by the committee, the company will implement a “non-standard 2.5-shift” work model, which means, in practice, reducing the manufacturing speed of one of the three work shifts. Specifically, production on this model is equivalent to not producing for ten days with the current model.
In his opinion, this new “production model invented and imposed by the company” modifies the working conditions and the provisions of the agreement and, “therefore, it should be agreed.”
The committee recalled that in March 2020 the company signed with the committee an agreement on a temporary employment regulation file (ERTE) where it promised that, given the current uncertainty, if it were necessary to resort to the suspension of working hours, the account reference could reach the limit of -175 hours until the end of the year. It also indicated that, for the same reasons, if the company had to carry out another ERTE one year after the resumption of activity, the applicable conditions will be the same as those of the signed ERTE.
In this sense, the committee, which recalled that the company’s commitment remains in effect until May 2021, has denounced that the company, instead of applying this commitment, has chosen to “avoid it.”
THE COMPANY “DOES NOT FULFILL ITS COMMITMENT”
“The company has decided not to fulfill its commitment, surely because it is more profitable to leave the temporary group on the street, than to apply a ten-day ERTE to the entire workforce, compensating 80% of the gross salary, as the unfulfilled agreement says, always understanding that the maintenance of employment must be guaranteed “, he added.
For this reason, they have regretted that the company, “far from reaching out” to the committee, has asserted itself in “imposing its criteria and decisions, using the threat as the main tool.”
In this sense, he has denounced that there is a “total lack of respect”, not only to the committee, but to the entire staff, when, in his opinion, “respect and empathy are a minimum to be able to reach agreements”.
The committee has pointed out that it is in a temporary conjuncture “where no one is left over” and recalled that, since 2016, the Mercedes-Benz workforce has remained between 4,900 and 5,000 people, which “makes it clear and demonstrates that the entire current workforce was and is structural and necessary. ”
In his opinion, there are alternatives and he has specified that “historically there have been situations of fluctuation in production and” they have not been resolved in this way. “But for the company, the simplest and, of course, cheaper, is to dispense with the collective most vulnerable, the eventual “.
The committee insisted that there were “less damaging” solutions, but the company “once again imposed its criteria without seeking less aggressive solutions for the workforce in general and the eventual group in particular.”
Finally, after stating that “they will not accept the imposition and constant threat” from the management, he announced that the committee will hold an extraordinary plenary session on Monday, the 16th to analyze the situation.