The Munich-based automaker expects a loss in the current quarter. Now BMW wants to force job cuts.
Munich (dpa) - BMW wants to accelerate the job cuts in the group. The board of directors is negotiating with the works council on how to cut around 6,000 of the 126,000 jobs worldwide as soon as possible without redundancies.
CFO Nicolas Peter said on request: "The decisions made so far are not sufficient to steer the BMW Group in the best possible way through this extremely difficult situation." Head of HR Ilka Horstmeier said, in addition to the reduction of time and vacation accounts and short-time work "we can not avoid taking further measures now".
It is being tested to send employees to retire two or three years before the statutory retirement age with a settlement earlier. The approximately 800 trainees who will be finished are to be taken on. But young employees should be able to take time off to study or qualify with the guarantee that they will be able to work again at BMW afterwards. Instead of vacation pay, there should be more vacation days, 40-hour contracts should be reduced to 35 hours. "Our goal is to adopt a package in June," said Horstmeier.
About 5000 employees usually leave the car company every year, half of them retire. Any vacancies that are vacant will be checked in each individual case. In the recession, however, fewer employees switch to other companies than in normal times.
BMW expects a loss like VW and Daimler in the current quarter. Sales are poor, the plants work in one shift. CEO Oliver Zipse said at the annual general meeting in mid-May: "The forecasts for 2020 are bleak." BMW works council chief Manfred Schoch no longer ruled out redundancies. A company agreement guarantees every employee his or her job - but only as long as the company generates an annual profit.