VOLKSWAGEN WILL grant workers at its German factories a 4.3 per cent pay increase despite difficulties in core western European markets amid the euro zone debt crisis.
The 97,000 workers at VW’s six western German plants and 5,000 employees at the financial services division will receive the additional pay over 13 months, starting June 1st, Europe’s largest car-maker said yesterday.
Under the new contract as many as 3,000 temporary workers will be hired permanently.
“This is a very good and acceptable compromise,” Hartmut Meine, chief negotiator for the IG Metall union, said at a press conference in Hanover, Germany. “We got a bit more than the overall industry.”
Earlier this month Germany’s largest labour union agreed with employers to increase wages across the country’s metal and engineering industry by 4.3 per cent.
The increase will benefit 3.6 million workers at companies including Daimler and BMW.
The pay deal is equivalent to slightly less than 4 per cent when VW’s terms of duration are applied.
“The VW accord seems reasonable,” said Alexander Schumann, chief economist of the Berlin-based DIHK industry and trade chambers.
VW, which posted a 10.2 per cent increase in first-quarter operating profit to €3.2 billion, is battling with declining sales in core western European markets.
The company’s four-month deliveries in the region, excluding the sturdy German home market, fell 5.9 per cent to 661,400 vehicles. – (Reuter)
