Volkswagen, the struggling German carmaker, has terminated a series of collective bargaining agreements effective at the end of the year. The company said on Wednesday that, in its view, various provisions in the agreements need to be adjusted in light of the current cost pressures facing the business. According to the trade union IG Metall, the move affects ten collective agreements, including the general collective agreement governing employment conditions. Volkswagen said that its future collective agreement, which includes employment security provisions, is not affected.
IG Metall accused Volkswagen of putting a range of employee benefits and protections at risk by terminating the agreements. These include collectively agreed allowances, the retention of trainees after completing their training, as well as protections for older employees and those with health-related limitations. The union said the potential intervention in the general collective agreement was particularly problematic. The agreement regulates working hours as well as 30 days of collectively agreed annual leave and various employee protection rights.
Thorsten Gröger, IG Metall's lead negotiator, described the move as an “ugly foul” against the workforce and a “shameless attempt to reach into employees’ wallets.” Volkswagen was trying, he said, “to shift the company’s economic challenges onto those who keep the company running every day.” The union would “not accept” a situation in which “entrepreneurial costs and risks are now to be shifted onto the workforce,” Gröger said.
Volkswagen, for its part, said that terminating the collective agreements would open up the negotiating process. Representatives of IG Metall, the works council and Volkswagen management met in Hanover on Wednesday for what is known as a review meeting. After the company's executive board presented its intensified cost-cutting programme, employee representatives invoked a clause in the 2024 collective agreement in mid-September, thereby forcing the meeting to take place.
According to Volkswagen, the carmaker and the trade union have agreed to hold further talks in the second half of October. Volkswagen, like other German carmakers, is currently facing a deep crisis.
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