CAR GIANT Daimler is putting 20,000 workers on short-time as new data showed how growing economic uncertainty has dragged down German industrial production by 2 per cent.
Germany's economic ministry presented the October data yesterday and warned of worse data to come, with dramatic consequences for the euro, as Europe's industrial heartland faces what some are warning will be its worst recession in post-war history.
"Given the decline in manufacturing orders that has been going on for some time, industrial output should continue to weaken in coming months," said the economics ministry in Berlin yesterday in a statement.
Yesterday, Daimler became the latest car company to be hit by the economic slowdown.
Facing a 25 per cent drop in demand for its products, it announced short-time for workers in its Mercedes plant near Stuttgart from January to March.
The short-time solution was confirmed by works council boss Erich Klemm as the most effective way to cope with weakening demand. Most Daimler employees in Germany enjoy redundancy protection until 2011.
As well as shorter working weeks, employees will be taking up to four weeks off at Christmas.
BMW has already sent employees at its central production facility in Munich on their Christmas holidays.
Over at General Motors' subsidiary Opel, meanwhile, unions and management are expected to introduce a 33-hour, four-day week to cut costs. The discussions follow a three-week production stop at some Opel works in October.
The news will increase pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel, as her French and British counterparts met in London without her yesterday to debate measures to soften the economic slowdown.
Dr Merkel has expressed scepticism about the effectiveness of multi-billion stimulus packages and has ruled out any further plans until after Christmas.
As a holding measure, she has called a meeting of high-ranking experts and politicians next Sunday. "For a targeted response to the coming economic development, we need a comprehensive and careful analysis of the situation," she said. No new programmes will be decided at the meeting, she said, "but I want to keep my options open".
"I'm against speculating publicly every day about those options," she said.
