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BMW production in Leipzig in June 2020: "We create the same conditions"
Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa
Even more than 30 years after the fall of the Wall, many collective agreements in East Germany are still worse than in West Germany.
BMW now wants to change something about this - and, following Volkswagen, is adjusting the working hours for employees in both parts of the country.
The company said that working hours will be reduced in three steps to 35 hours per week by 2026.
Works council chairman Manfred Schoch spoke of a historic success in the harmonization of working conditions between East and West.
"More than 30 years after the fall of the Wall, our BMW Group employees from the East finally don't have to work three hours a week more than their colleagues from the West."
One month less work per year
VW announced in May that it would align the wage conditions of the East German employees with those in West Germany and integrate the previously independent VW Sachsen GmbH with plants in Chemnitz, Dresden and Zwickau into Volkswagen AG.
The East German VW employees have to work out the shorter working hours themselves, and productivity is to be increased for this purpose.
BMW Personnel Manager Ilka Horstmeier justified the move for her company with the words: "We create the same conditions." The Leipzig plant went into operation in 2005 and today employs 5,300 people.
General Works Council chief Schoch said that the reduction in working hours from 38 to 35 hours a week meant a month less work per year.
BMW Board Member for Production Milan Nedeljkovic said the step-by-step plan creates planning security and ensures the long-term competitiveness of the site.
Around 1100 vehicles of the small model series BMW 1 and 2 series and the electric pioneer i3 currently roll off the assembly line in Leipzig every day.
Battery modules are also manufactured at the site.
To compensate for the shorter weekly working hours, 300 additional employees are to be hired.
Around 5,300 people currently work at the BMW Leipzig plant.
At the start of production in 2005 there were still 2,300 employees.
apr / Reuters / dpa