Daimler aims to outsource information technology services and cut positions in research and development. Daimler AG’s Chief Executive Officer Ola Kaellenius plans a new cost savings program and is looking to cut an additional 10,000 jobs through 2025, magazine Automobilwoche reported, citing unidentified company sources.
The carmaker aims to outsource information technology services and cut positions in research and development, according to the magazine. The company previously announced in November a plan to reduce its workforce by 10,000 through 2022 to cut personnel spending by 1.4 billion euro ($1.6 billion).
There is no other explanation for the circular letter addressed to the company’s 300,000 employees from Central Works Council Chairman Michael Brecht and his deputy, Irgun Lümali calling for an intensification of attacks on workers.
Due to declining sales and a reduction in profits, the works council warned about a drop in share prices and raised concerns over whether dividends would be paid out. Therefore, a further reduction of the workforce and cuts to workers’ benefits were unavoidable, the pair wrote. The already planned 15,000 job cuts are inadequate, the letter continued, and will need to be dramatically increased. The two works council leaders wrote that talks on this have begun “between the works council and company management.”
Daimler, which had about 299,000 employees at the end of 2019, disputed the report. “We’ve only communicated one number, and that’s the 1.4 billion euro in savings we’re targeting,” Joerg Howe, head of communications at the automaker, told Bloomberg News. “Anything else is speculation on behalf of Automobilwoche.”
BMW cutting jobs as well
German high-end carmaker BMW will slash 6,000 of its over 120,000 jobs worldwide this year, a spokesman told AFP Friday, as the industry battles a demand trough and production setbacks from the coronavirus pandemic.