Schaeffler, Employees Reach Agreement on Cost Cutting Measures

The agreement rules out the possibility of retrenchments at the Schweinfurt location before June 30, 2010. Schaeffler believes that the recession’s “valley floor” has been reached and that markets will show signs of recovery in 2010. Should this positive prognosis prove over time to be unsustainable, however, management and employee representatives agree that further measures will be necessary. These measures could include staff redundancies.

”We have now reached an agreement upon a package of measures upon what are, from a current perspective, essential cost cuts. To elinimate the possibility of further measures, however, we also need an upturn in demand across the international markets. It is now important that we also quickly conclude negotiations in other locations and arrive at a reasonable solution,” said Schaeffler human resources director Klaus Widmaier. ”The compromise reflects the underlying economic conditions and places as low as possible burden upon employees,” said Norbert Lenhard, head of the Schweinfurt works council. “With this agreement we will time to reach socially compatible solutions. We are keeping workers in their jobs in case the business recovery comes earlier than expected.”