After Mercedes, VW management is now also adding higher weekly hours to the table. Individual collective agreements could also be shaken during the review meeting on Wednesday.
Wolfsburg. At Volkswagen (VW), the next tough disputes with the IG Metall union are looming. According to information from Handelsblatt from corporate circles, Europe's largest car manufacturer is preparing to terminate several collective agreements. The company wants to reduce its labor costs and to renegotiate benefits and working conditions.
On Wednesday, VW representatives will meet with IG Metall and the works council in Hanover for a so-called review meeting. At the meeting, management wants to explain why, in its view, the savings from the 2024 collective agreement are no longer enough.
The employee representatives, on the other hand, are demanding clarity about the commitments made at the time for the German locations. IG Metall emphasizes: The meeting serves to review these commitments and is not a collective bargaining agreement. They originally scheduled the review meeting. The Handelsblatt first reported on the appointment.
It is not yet entirely clear which agreements VW wants to terminate and when. But there could be several. In total, the system of company collective agreements at VW consists of 13 individual contracts.
Negotiating circles say that the future collective agreement of 2024 and the employment security agreed therein until the end of 2030 should explicitly remain untouched. However, other individual collective agreements are shaky.
It is initially unclear whether individual contracts will be terminated directly on Wednesday and depends on the course of the talks in Hanover. Insiders on both sides of the negotiations see this as a possible option.
What is explosive is that, according to information from corporate circles, the important collective agreement is also up for debate. It brings together numerous basic regulations for the more than 100,000 VW employees in Germany - including working hours and overtime.
After Mercedes, the continent's largest car manufacturer could also face a debate about longer working hours. The board is calling for working hours to be increased from 35 to 38 or 40 hours per week without wage compensation in order to reduce labor costs.
The Handelsblatt reported exclusively on this. If rejected, Mercedes management threatens to close the plant.
VW also has three plants at its disposal: Hanover, Emden and Zwickau, as well as the Neckarsulm location of the premium subsidiary Audi. There is currently no specific demand for a 38 or 40 hour week at VW. It is not expected on Wednesday either, but it could come to the negotiating table at a later date, they say.
So far, VW employees in Germany have had a 35-hour week. Working hours were not standardized until 2025. Previously, some employees with old contracts at VW had lower weekly working hours.
Management sees longer working weeks as an opportunity to reduce costs per working hour and thus make the German plants more competitive. The logic behind it: Where there is overtime at Volkswagen today and the car manufacturer has to hire additional employees, for example when production of new models starts, more regular hours could directly reduce costs.
According to an analyst report, BMW boss Nedeljkovic is focusing on greater localization and a restructuring of the product range. The group has set a new interim target for returns.
Longer working hours could also play a role when awarding the production of new models because they make a location more competitive. However, wherever there is a surplus of staff, extending working hours would make no sense.
The review meeting in Hanover officially brings companies and employee representatives together again in a larger group for the first time since the major supervisory board resolution at the beginning of September.
Internal documents available to Handelsblatt envisage the reduction of up to 60,000 additional jobs worldwide - in addition to the around 50,000 jobs that are to be eliminated through programs already in progress.
At the same time, annual overhead costs – for example for administration, central IT and buildings – are expected to fall by around eleven billion euros. Subsequent occupancy in the 2030s is therefore open for Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and the Audi Neckarsulm plant.
The future of the plants should be dealt with in a separate “work stream”. This means that the appointment on Wednesday could, above all, set the schedule for the next collective bargaining dispute.
As in the metal and electrical industries, IG Metall is also demanding five percent more money from VW. The car manufacturer's peace obligation ends on January 1st. It already seems clear: a zero round alone is clearly not enough for management.
