The company and the Works Council informed employees about the Volkswagen brand’s pact for the future at a works meeting held today (Wednesday) in Wolfsburg. The pact for the future was signed on November 18 by the brand CEO, Dr. Herbert Diess, the Brand Board Member for Human Resources, Dr. Karlheinz Blessing, and the Chairman of the General Works Council, Bernd Osterloh. At the works meeting, the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, addressed a few words of welcome to employees. The common message was: the pact for the future must now be implemented swiftly to achieve a sustained improvement in the competitiveness of the Volkswagen brand.
Speaking to some 20,000 employees in Hall 11, the CEO of the Volkswagen Group, Matthias Müller, said: “The pact for the future is the biggest reform program in the history of our Group’s core brand. It will make the Volkswagen brand more efficient, more productive and more competitive.” He added that this was imperative: “Without a strong and successful Volkswagen brand, the Volkswagen Group as a whole cannot be strong and successful.”
The Chairman of the General Works Council, Bernd Osterloh, said: “We expect colleagues to be informed from early next year as to how and when they can take partial early retirement. From January, we expect to see a significant expansion in opportunities for taking partial early retirement with regard to two aspects: first, the company must lower the eligible age for partial early retirement and second, more jobs must be allocated to the partial early retirement program for each eligible year of birth. As a first step, the company should announce the next eligible year of birth for partial early retirement.”
The Board Member for Human Resources, Dr. Karlheinz Blessing, underscored: “At Volkswagen, we are shaping the future together. The reorientation over the coming months and years affects each one of us. Anyone who wants a future-proof job must be willing to take on new challenges in the workplace. Please make use of the qualification offers, please seize your opportunities!” Blessing continued: “We intend to accomplish the planned job cuts via the demographic curve and partial early retirement. As far as the latter is concerned, we will be focusing primarily on jobs that will either be cut or can be filled internally. We will begin our discussions with employees in January.”
In his welcome message, Prime Minister Stephan Weil said: “Lower Saxony supports the course for future viability that Volkswagen is setting with the pact for the future. The envisaged job cuts are a bitter pill, but at the same time we recognize the necessity, because this is about laying the foundations for the future of Volkswagen. A successful outcome to the reorientation process that is currently underway will bring future-proof jobs, and that is to the benefit of both employees and the State of Lower Saxony.”
