Opel has achieved its goal of leaving a further 2,100 employees by the end of 2021. The employment contracts are only terminated with the help of a volunteer program, confirmed HR manager Ralph Wangemann of the VRM publishing group.
According to a VRM announcement, he said today: “Together with our social partners, even before the pandemic began, we agreed to cut 2100 jobs through a volunteer program with attractive conditions and early retirement – on a completely voluntary basis. We have this goal with the Reached the end of the year and thus further significantly increased our competitiveness in a socially acceptable manner. “
“Speed Rewards” of at least 20,000 euros
With IG Metall, the Stellantis Group’s brand has long agreed not to lay off compulsory redundancies until mid-2025, and has cut thousands of jobs in several waves of severance payments. Recently, however, there were hardly any volunteers, so the management was thinking out loud about the so-called “catastrophe clause” in the collective agreement to fire people for operational reasons. After considerable protests, Stellantis refrained from doing so and from outsourcing the German production plants to the Opel group. According to VRM, “speed bonuses” of at least 20,000 euros, which are paid in addition to the severance payment, were also helpful in the job cuts.
Tomorrow, after a short-time break of several months, production in the Thuringian plant in Eisenach is to start again. A two-shift operation is planned for the Rüsselsheim plant. In an interview with the Thuringian General Opel boss Uwe Hochgeschurtz emphasized that Eisenach, like every other plant in the Stellantis production network, must continue to permanently demonstrate its competitiveness. With the SUV model Grandland, the plant has the best prerequisites for this.
Opel is the only German brand in the Stellantis Group, which was created in 2021. Together with sister brands such as Peugeot, Fiat, Citroen and Jeep, Stellantis sold roughly the same 360,000 cars in Germany last year and increased its market share by 1.3 points to 13.7 percent, as the company announced today in Rüsselsheim.
(fpi)