Volkswagen to cut 12,000 more German jobs

VW announces 12,000 additional German job cuts by 2030

Volkswagen plans to cut an additional 12,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 as part of an intensified cost-cutting and restructuring programme. The plan was outlined after a meeting with employee representatives in Hanover and applies to Volkswagen AG, which includes the core brand, the components division and the group’s corporate positions. The planned cuts expand existing restructuring efforts that already foresee extensive workforce reductions over the same time frame.

The company intends to carry out the job reductions in what it describes as a socially acceptable or socially responsible manner. Employees whose positions are eliminated are to be offered options such as state-supported retraining programmes and participation in special transition structures aimed at easing the move into new roles. Volkswagen states that the aim is to give affected staff choices and support as they navigate the changes up to 2030.

The 12,000 additional German job cuts come on top of a previously approved workforce-reduction programme that includes plans to eliminate more than 35,000 positions by 2030. For Volkswagen AG specifically, a reduction of more than 35,000 roles had already been negotiated two years earlier. The latest decision adds the new 12,000 positions to that figure, deepening the total scale of the planned workforce adjustment within Germany.

Beyond the German plans, Volkswagen has also indicated that its management board is targeting around 50,000 job cuts worldwide by 2030, in addition to earlier restructuring measures in the group. The company links the need for these reductions to a difficult operating environment and has signalled a comprehensive restructuring drive across its operations. However, it has also reaffirmed that an existing future collective agreement, which includes employment guarantees, will remain in force until the end of 2030.

To implement the planned reductions, Volkswagen wants to negotiate the establishment of transfer companies during the upcoming collective bargaining round. These transfer companies would serve as transitional structures for employees whose positions are being cut, where participants can receive help in finding new employment, including through vocational training and other qualification measures. Moving into these entities is intended to be voluntary, with the duration, working conditions and possible severance payments to be agreed with employee representatives.

Volkswagen also refers to the use of other voluntary exit tools to limit the impact of the downsizing. The group cites instruments such as partial retirement and severance packages, alongside transfer companies, as ways to reduce headcount while aiming to preserve social standards. Under the proposed arrangements, the Federal Employment Agency may cover part of employee pay through transfer short-time work benefits, subject to the design agreed in collective bargaining.

The IG Metall trade union has sharply criticised Volkswagen’s proposal to rely on publicly supported transfer companies in connection with the job cuts. The union describes the plan as a breach of commitments in collective bargaining policy without a sound legal basis and rejects the idea of pushing staff into such structures as a primary tool. Instead, it argues that the company should secure its long-term future by focusing on new products, new markets and technological leadership, and has called on shareholders to assume responsibility before public funds are deployed.

Formal collective bargaining negotiations over the job cuts and transfer companies are scheduled to begin on November 24. The current peace obligation period, during which industrial action is prohibited, runs until December 31. IG Metall has threatened strike action at Volkswagen from 2027, signalling the potential for significant labour conflict if no agreement is reached. Despite the tensions, Volkswagen states it will maintain the existing employment security provisions contained in its future collective agreement until the end of 2030.