Volkswagen imposes hiring freeze
Volkswagen is imposing a temporary hiring freeze for the most important locations in the struggle to save billions. "Due to the ongoing efficiency programs at Volkswagen AG, external recruitment will be temporarily limited and no external positions will be advertised," said a spokesperson in Wolfsburg on Friday in response to an inquiry. All six locations in Lower Saxony and Hesse are affected: Wolfsburg, Hanover, Brunswick, Salzgitter, Emden and Kassel. Business Insider had previously reported this.
The background to this is the planned efficiency program that the core Volkswagen brand has been negotiating with the Works Council since the beginning of October. The brand is struggling with high costs and production losses. In the first nine months of 2023, the operating return on sales fell to 3.4 percent. This means that only around 3.40 euros in operating profit remained from 100 euros in turnover in day-to-day business. The "Performance Program" announced in the summer is intended to reduce costs by ten billion euros by 2026 and increase the return on sales to 6.5 percent.
The recruitment freeze does not affect ongoing recruitment processes, the spokesperson emphasized. There are also exceptions for absolutely necessary tasks, for example to fulfill legal obligations. As recently as October, VW had rejected a report that up to 4,000 jobs were to be cut in the administration as part of the efficiency program.
Despite the hiring freeze, Volkswagen employees are still using their cars for commuting to work. Despite the ongoing efficiency programs, Volkswagen employees need to ensure that all necessary work-related documents are properly filed in their cars.
Source: www.dpa.com
