MAN: Stuck talks on job cuts - VW Group sends HR director Kilian as a mediator 

Thousands of employees at the Munich truck manufacturer MAN are worried about their jobs.

In order to get movement in the faltering discussions, the parent company VW is now intervening.

• At the Munich truck manufacturer

  MAN

  , 9,500 jobs are at stake.

• The situation has recently come to a head.

  The works council accuses the group of

  uncompromising

  and put the talks on hold.

• But now the negotiations could go into the next round - thanks to help from

  VW

  headquarters.

Munich - The stalled discussions about the planned job cuts at the Munich truck manufacturer

moving again.

"The negotiations are to be resumed in the coming week," said a person familiar with the processes to Merkur.de *.

A corresponding announcement is expected on Friday (November 20th).

For this day, the works council has invited employees at the German-speaking locations to a virtual works meeting.

CEO

is also

expected there.

It would be his first appearance in front of the employees since the company announced a comprehensive restructuring program at the end of September.

According to the plans,

wants to cut

9500 of the total of 36,000 jobs, the

(Rhineland-Palatinate),

(Saxony)

locations

and the plant in

in Upper

are to be closed.

From the main plant it is said that so far Tostmann has "avoided explaining his plans to those affected".

Now he has to "finally show the flag himself".

In addition,

mother’s

*’s chief

human resources officer

,

, will

apparently

speak

on Friday

.

Before his appointment to the

group board, the

trained journalist was

among other things managing director of the

group works council at the headquarters in

* and is therefore also highly regarded by the employees.

The

works council surprisingly put the ongoing talks with management on the restructuring last Wednesday (November 11) on hold and accused the management board of a lack of willingness to compromise.

The company had even after seven sessions "not a millimeter is moving," said

-Betriebsratschef

.

MAN: VW HR Director Gunnar Kilian mediates

In order to get the stalled negotiations going again,

Labor Director Kilian

intervened

last week.

Observers see this as an indication that the

board could now be ready to cut fewer than the initially targeted 9500 jobs.

However, the parties face very difficult talks.

According to reports,

in particular

vehemently

rejects

a new works agreement and is pushing for a collective agreement instead.

The trigger for the tough stance was the surprising termination of the location and job security agreements by the

management at the end of September.

According to the regulations, redundancies for operational

actually excluded

at

until 2030.

However,

with a view to millions of losses

, the

executive board withdrew the so-called bad weather clause and terminated the agreements.

This means that redundancies for operational reasons would be possible again.

The move was considered a taboo break in the consensus-oriented

empire.

MAN: IG Metall is pushing for a watertight solution

In view of this experience, the union is now working towards a collective agreement.

From a legal point of view, collective agreements are “considerably more difficult to terminate” than company agreements and are therefore more secure, but they require the consent of the union members.

The core component of the new set of rules should be the exclusion of redundancies for operational reasons.

The central cornerstones should be before Christmas, they say.

They want to make the downsizing as socially acceptable as possible.

These included early retirement regulations, severance packages, partial retirement and special regulations for employees with restrictions.

Conversely, in

addition to extensive staff

cuts,

also

wants

to stipulate the elimination of extra tariffs for work on Saturdays, for example.