Opel confirms 1,800 job losses at Bochum

Opel has confirmed it will axe 1,800 of its 4,600-strong employees at the Bochum plant in Germany, although it is as yet unclear if any forced redundancies will be made.

As KHABAR KHODRO reports, Some 600 staff have already chosen to leave last year, while the automaker says transmission production will continue with around 300 employees until the end of 2013 due to high export demands. Originally, gearbox production was to cease at the end of 2011.

The remaining staff will concentrate on producing the new generation Zafira from this autumn and the previous generation for an undisclosed period.

Opel is also making permanent jobs available for more than 300 Bochum employees in the Rüsselsheim plant and the Dudenhofen Test Centre, with around 100 Bochum employees already accepting the offer. Financial help in the guise of what Opel calls an "increased mobility premium" will be made available.

"With this agreement Opel reaches the end point of the company's restructuring, which started early 2010 with the promise of making substantial investments in our products as well as adjusting capacity in our European plants," said Opel/Vauxhall CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke.

"We are on the right track with our products, and our continuously increasing market share across Europe is a very encouraging sign," added Stracke. "We will work even more intensively to further strengthen the company and the Opel brand."

Plant management and the works council in Bochum enlisted the assistance of an arbitration committee, through the Works Constitution Act. The parties reached an agreement after several rounds of negotiations.

As planned, Opel is cutting 1,800 jobs in Bochum. At the beginning of the restructuring, the plant employed 4,600 people, 600 of whom chose to leave in 2010.

In addition, Opel is offering further incentives to employees who voluntarily leave the company or move to other company locations by the cut-off date of 15 July. Outplacement agencies will be established to help employees find new employment.

"We have tough negotiations behind us and are completing the plant restructuring as planned," said plant director Manfred Gellrich. The agreement now reached is a good solution for securing the future of the Bochum plant in the long term."