GERMANY: Mercedes job cuts aim to save 500 million euros per year

Record ID: 868295

  • Title: GERMANY: Mercedes job cuts aim to save 500 million euros per year
  • Date: 30th September 2005
  • Summary: CLOSE UP SIGN READING "GATE 7," PAN TO CLOCK
  • Embargoed: 15th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Industry,Employment
  • Reuters ID: LVABV4T4FI6UAVW503MW7A8HBDIK
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  • Story Text: DaimlerChrysler aims to save 500 million euros ($602.8 million) a year in labour costs via voluntary redundancy packages for 8,500 workers at its Mercedes Car Group division, it said on Thursday (September 29). According to a spokeswoman, the company is "(aiming for) savings of around 500 million a year."
    She added that the exact amount depended on how many staff actually sign up for the deal. The job cuts are supposed to take place over 12 months. Savings would come on top of the annual 500 million euros in savings the group generated via a deal with its works council last year that guaranteed no worker at its German plants would be laid off through the end of 2011 in exchange for cost-cutting concessions. Mercedes Car Group chief Dieter Zetsche put his famed charisma to the test on Thursday, facing workers at the premium car division's main factory after chopping 8,500 jobs to revive slumping profits. "Of course we all wished to make Mercedes Car Group fit again without having to resort to such measures," he said in a letter to staff released by DaimlerChrysler, the world's fifth-biggest carmaker. It had already started to cut costs, boost sales and improve quality problems that damaged Mercedes-Benz's elegant image, he wrote.
    Workers coming off the night shift at the 90-year-old plant that makes Mercedes-Benz cars and Maybach limousines were nervous. "Of course everyone is concerned about their job," Waltraud Lichtenberger told Reuters Television.
    The head of DaimlerChrysler's works council, Erich Klemm, told reporters outside Sindelfingen plant that "the agreements reached are planning for a job reduction on a voluntary basis." "My hope is that especially the early retirement packages are attractive enough. The company has said that if the voluntary redunancy packages are not sufficient, further measures will be discussed. Among them, according to the company, could be a reduction of working hours." In Berlin, German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement accused the German car industry of acting belatedly. "German car production is the best in the world," Clement said. "But we have to make sure it stays that way. I am implying that the decisions which are now being made are mostly belated and that these decisions contribute to keeping our current position."

    MOTOR INDUSTRY CAR FACTORIES
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