Saturday, November 19, 2016

Volkswagen shall eliminate 30,000 jobs worldwide – Portfolio.co

The giant German car Volkswagen announced on Friday the abolition of 30,000 jobs around the world, 7,000 of them in Argentina and Brazil, in the framework of a plan to return to profitability after the 'dieselgate'.

The layoff of employees will occur through early retirements, and not through layoffs, by virtue of an agreement which is effective until 2025. "it Is a great step forward, without a doubt, one of the largest in the history of the company" stated its president Herbert Diess at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg (north).

The officer explained that the aim is to reduce annual expenses by 3,700 million euros a year until 2020. The plan’s goal is to overcome the scandal of the souped-up engines, that erupted in September of 2015 and hit full to the group, as well as to solve other problems already existing previously.

"The brand Volkswagen does not give enough money," noted Diess. "We are very far away from our competitors in terms of profitability," he added, before presenting a series of measures that allow the recovery of the manufacturer, among others, cars, Golf and Passat.

More than two-thirds of the deletions (23.000) will be held in Germany but also affect Brazil and Argentina, two markets currently in distress. "I’m very sorry for those affected, but the situation (…) gives us only a small margin of maniobrto" said Diess.

The Volkswagen group, which employs nearly 600,000 people around the world, controls 12 brands including the prestigious Audi, Porsche, Seat or Skoda.

The management also indicated that it wants to create up to 9,000 jobs at its German factories, in which it will invest in "the next few years" 3.500 million euros, in particular to reorient activities towards the electric car.

'Dieselgate', the coup de grace

The German giant was affected a little more than a year by the so-called scandal 'dieselgate'. "Without the 'dieselgate', the group would have expected" to reorganize, said the sector specialist Ferdinand Dudenhöffer of the chain of television NTV.

This plan "it hurts, but it is a good decision," he said. "The group must reduce expenses by its weak productivity, but also by the costs associated with the 'dieselgate'", explains Frank Schwope, bank LBBW.

The scandal of the souped-up engines blew up in September of 2015, when the German giant was accused of having used about 11 million of its vehicles with diesel engines a device manipulated to present them as less polluting than they were in reality during the controls.

After the revelation, the shares of Volkswagen fell by 40 percent, investors suffered heavy losses, and now demanding billions of euros to the manufacturer.
The German group has provisioned the 18,000 million euros to cope with the consequences of the scandal but experts believe that the final sum will be much higher.

The case of diesel has forced the German group to review its strategy. In June, Volkswagen already announced that it wanted to sell over 30 kinds of vehicles to fully electric before 2025, which will need significant investment.

there are Still too personal

to Eliminate 30,000 jobs it sounds dramatic, but for Volkswagen AG, a drop in the ocean, equivalent to just five per cent of its staff worldwide because it will continue to have 600,000 employees.

it Is important that VW finally take measures to correct a chronic problem of productivity that employs more people than GM and Toyota put together.

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