WOLFSBURG (dpa-AFX) - Volkswagen has secured itself against a further escalation of the crisis with an emergency clause in its collective agreement with IG Metall. According to a report in Business Insider, the future collective agreement concluded shortly before Christmas includes a provision that allows working hours to be reduced to 28 hours in the event of bottlenecks, with only partial wage compensation.
The prerequisite is that all other measures, such as reducing overtime and short-time work, have been exhausted, according to the collective agreement, which is available to the German press agency. In the event of temporary employment problems, the weekly working hours for all employees can be reduced by up to seven hours across the board, i.e. from the regular 35 to up to 28 hours.
There would be full pay for the first two hours of the reduction, and from the third hour onwards, wages would be reduced proportionately. A maximum of three of the six hours would remain unpaid. However, according to company sources, the regulation is only intended for use in an absolute emergency, when the situation dramatically worsens, which nobody expects.
Four-day week as a model
The arrangement is reminiscent of the four-day week that VW introduced more than 30 years ago to avert an impending job cut. At the time, the company was also in the throes of a severe crisis, with tens of thousands of jobs at risk. To avert this, the then-head of VW's human resources, Peter Hartz, agreed to a comprehensive reduction in working hours with the IG Metall labor union at the end of 1993. The arrangement remained in place for more than twelve years.
Shortly before Christmas, the company and the union agreed on a restructuring program that provides for the elimination of 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030. In return, VW reinstated the previously announced job security and extended it to 2030. The planned job cuts are now to be implemented without layoffs. VW has around 130,000 employees at its plants in Lower Saxony, Hesse and Saxony.