VW reaches German deal on wages, pensions
FRANKFURT: Volkswagen has agreed to raise the wages of around 120,000 workers in Germany by 4.3 per cent from May, resolving a dispute that had prompted its first strikes since 2004. The deal announced by Europe’s largest carmaker and labour union IG Metall on Wednesday includes a 100euro one-off payment, improvements to VW’s corporate pension scheme and the right for some workers to choose more time off instead of more money.
It also allows for some workers’ hours to be increased temporarily to work on projects, which has been a key demand of industrial employers in recent labour negotiations as they face full order books.
IG Metall had demanded a 6 per cent wage increase for workers at VW’s facilities in western Germany, a bump in pensions and more hiring of apprentices to help cope with an industry shift to electric vehicles and self-driving technology.
But VW, facing billions of euros in costs and fines over its diesel emissions-test cheating scandal and huge investments for its subsequent transformation plan, had dismissed the demands as excessive.
It had offered to raise wages by 3.5 per cent and by a further 2 per cent over 30 months.
The 4.3 per cent wage increase now agreed for a 27-month period mirrors a deal that IG Metall won for around 3.9 million industrial employees in Germany this month after rolling 24hour strikes across the country.
“This (similarity) was an important objective for us in order to safeguard the competitiveness of Volkswagen,” board member Karlheinz Blessing said in a statement. “At the same time, we have made Volkswagen significantly more attractive as an employer,” he said.