Volkswagen will terminate the collective agreement on job security: easier dismissals

As part of the austerity plan, the Volkswagen Group plans to terminate the collective agreement on job security. As communicated by the Volkswagen works council, the company informed the IG Metall union of the cancellation this afternoon. This means that the current company wage agreements and the job security provided for in them will expire at the end of this year. If the union and the carmaker do not agree on a new job security contract, Volkswagen could dismiss its employees for operational reasons as of July 2025.

Volkswagen is cancelling several internal wage agreements. The main brand of the car manufacturer of the same name wants to renegotiate, among other things, the salaries of its blue-collar workers, managers and temporary workers. The company is forced to make the cuts due to the current economic challenges, the group announced.

"We have to put Volkswagen in a position to reduce costs in Germany to a competitive level in order to be able to invest in new technologies and new products with our own forces," said Gunnar Kilian, Group Board member in charge of human resources and director of labour, adding that in view of the competition and Germany as a business location, "this is now crucial".

Among other things, the company wants to take action to reduce the high bonus payments for its managers in the so-called 'tariff plus' contract. Furthermore, Volkswagen wants to reduce the number of apprentices from the current level of 1,400, as stipulated in the collective agreement, and is therefore cancelling the takeover guarantee.

Since Volkswagen is currently reducing personnel in all areas outside of car production, it does not make sense to continue training apprentices for these areas, according to an insider, as reported by Der Spiegel.