Volkswagen appears to have softened its rigid directive concerning wage freezes until 2030, according to reports from Spiegel. In early October, the company set a strict mandate for its personnel managers worldwide: negotiating parties should aim to conclude collective bargaining agreements at corporate sites globally without salary increases until 2030 and implement cuts to bonuses, special payments, and allowances.
However, approximately three weeks later, an internal document reportedly changed this stance, replacing the broad demand with merely a goal of “reducing labor costs to competitive levels, such as zero increases over the period until 2030.” Crucially, the stipulation regarding the cutbacks to variable compensation is absent from this revised document. When reached for comment about the change, a Volkswagen spokesperson cited the confidentiality of internal documents and declined to elaborate.
In response, a spokesperson for the global Works Council welcomed the modification. They stated that a “chief’s decree from Wolfsburg cannot impose years of zero wage increases on hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide.” The spokesperson specifically commended the management board, noting that their return to practical sense, as revealed by the Spiegel investigation, was clearly successful, and that this adjustment was achieved in a remarkably short timeframe.
