18 February, 2010IG Metall and Volkswagen extend job security agreement for 95,000 workers to 2014.
GERMANY: IG Metall and Volkswagen AG reached an agreement on February 16 to extend until 2014 job security for 95,000 workers at plants in Wolfsburg, Emden, Hanover, Salzgitter, Brunswick and Kassel and VW Financial Services AG. The employment guarantee was already part of the current negotiated agreement due to expire next year and has now been extended to 2014.
It was also agreed that all apprentices in the company will get a regular employment contract after finishing their apprenticeship, providing 6,400 young people with job security in the future.
Negotiations for the VW plants in Zwickau, Chemnitz and Dresden are continuing, where it is expected the same principles will apply. Elsewhere workers at VW's Audi plants are covered by regional collective bargaining contracts and subject to a separate negotiating process.
Also in the agreement is a commitment from VW to invest additional money to create new jobs in innovative and alternative sectors.
"This outcome shows that it is possible for companies to weather the storm of a global financial crisis while at the same time providing for job security for the workers who make the success of the company possible," said Helmut Lense, IMF Director for Auto.