Compromise On Job Cuts At The Opel Plant In Bochum

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

The works council and the plant management of the Bochum Opel plant have agreed on a compromise with a view to cutting 1,800 jobs. After that, the workforce will be reduced, but the employees will receive additional financial incentives.

With the planned cut of 1,800 jobs at the Opel plant in Bochum, plant management and works council have found a compromise. Accordingly, the staff reduction will be fully implemented, but stretched over time. Quickly determined employees who leave the company or move to other Opel locations receive additional incentives in the amount of several monthly salaries in addition to the severance payment or switching bonus. This was announced by Opel spokesman Alexander Bazio on Tuesday in Bochum. The downsizing is part of the European restructuring program of the parent company General Motors (GM), with which 8,000 jobs are to be cut.

After the agreement, he was optimistic that enough volunteers would now register, said Bazio. The "volunteer phase" lasts until mid-August. Afterwards, dismissals for operational reasons are also possible as a last resort. "Without downsizing, the plant is simply not sustainable," he said.

Controversial restructuring plans

The restructuring plans had previously been controversial for months. An arbitration board headed by the former President of the Bremen State Labor Court, Martin Bertzbach, advised both sides. The Bochum works council could not be reached in the evening. He had initially rejected the proposed level of downsizing and instead proposed a reduction in working hours based on the VW example and short-time work. In addition, the employee representatives had demanded that transmission production in Bochum with around 300 employees be retained. Here it prevailed in part: The closure of transmission production was postponed from the end of 2011 to the end of 2013, which extends the overall dismantling process to the back.

According to Opel, around 4,200 people are currently working in the Bochum plant. 600 of the jobs to be cut have already been deleted. In the current year, 600 jobs would have to be cut, said Bazio. Employees who leave voluntarily receive severance payments of up to 250,000 euros. In addition, incentives of up to eight gross monthly salaries have been agreed. Opel provides 300 workstations in Rüsselsheim and in the Dudenhofen test center. The offered exchange bonus of 10,000 to 25,000 euros has been increased by up to five gross monthly salaries, said Bazio. (dpa)