Read this article in:
12 March, 2002Carmaker will only hire applicants who are unemployed or facing redundancy.
GERMANY: Volkswagen has started hiring for its job creation project called "5,000 times 5,000". The company reached an agreement last summer with the German government and with the German metalworkers' union IG Metall to employ and train as many as 5,000 jobless workers -- 3,500 for the carmaker's operations in Wolfsburg and 1,500 for Hanover.
Although VW had initially proposed creating the 5,000 new jobs at an average monthly pay rate of 5,000 German marks, IG Metall demanded an adjustment to the original project so that existing standards for the 35-hour week and wages in the regional agreement for the metal industry be met. (In Germany, automakers such as DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Ford and Opel are covered by regional agreements for the metal industry, whereas VW has an enterprise collective agreement for Volkswagen AG, excluding Audi and VW Saxonia.)
With a jobless rate of four million people, or over 10 per cent of Germany's workforce out of work, as many as 70,000 job seekers are expected to apply for the 3,500 jobs in Wolfsburg, where VW's new mini-van model is being built. The applicants must either be out of work or faced with layoff.
Although VW had initially proposed creating the 5,000 new jobs at an average monthly pay rate of 5,000 German marks, IG Metall demanded an adjustment to the original project so that existing standards for the 35-hour week and wages in the regional agreement for the metal industry be met. (In Germany, automakers such as DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Ford and Opel are covered by regional agreements for the metal industry, whereas VW has an enterprise collective agreement for Volkswagen AG, excluding Audi and VW Saxonia.)
With a jobless rate of four million people, or over 10 per cent of Germany's workforce out of work, as many as 70,000 job seekers are expected to apply for the 3,500 jobs in Wolfsburg, where VW's new mini-van model is being built. The applicants must either be out of work or faced with layoff.