Corona-crisis: car suppliers reduce working hours

"layoffs are off the table." This is the message that will be announced a few days before the start of the summer holidays in Baden-Württemberg, with several companies of the automobile industry – above all, the two auto supplier ZF Friedrichshafen and Bosch. Also, Daimler was workers expected for Friday with the understanding that the "Zusi" remains the same; the assurance that compulsory redundancies are ruled out until the end of 2029 – in the case of substantial services in the. Here the sound was the least rough, the group works Council chief Michael Brecht had insisted on a conclusion this week. All this is managed: on Friday evening, the negotiations were interrupted at the beginning of the week, it should go further.

Susanne Preuß

business correspondent in Stuttgart, Germany.

Throughout the Effort to avoid cancellations and personnel to reduce costs in other ways. This is necessary, because the already evolving car industry is affected by the Corona of a pandemic of a drastic decline in demand and, therefore, significant Overcapacity. The "collective agreement Transformation", the automotive supplier ZF has closed, is valid from a trade Union point of view this Effort as a model that others should, like IG-Metall district head novel Zitzelsberger said on Friday. He knows the Situation of the suppliers is good, because he is a Union representative of the Supervisory Board of ZF as well as Daimler.

The roughly 50,000 employees of ZF in Germany to win by the collective bargaining agreement with the certainty that by the end of 2022, and no sites are closed and their jobs are secure. In return, the employees waive, on a one-off payment of 400 euros, which would be actually due in July. Depending on the order situation, the ZF must expect employees also so that you can work less and earn less, provided that the order situation remains after the expiry of the classical short-time working poor: Then ZF has due to the collective agreement the possibility to reduce the working time by up to 20 percent. Thus, the income losses are cushioned, to say the ZF top-up payments in accordance with the pattern of the classical short-time work.