Around 5,300 people currently work at the BMW Leipzig plant.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich After Volkswagen, BMW is also adjusting the working hours for employees in East Germany to those in West Germany. The company announced on Friday that it will be reduced in three steps to 35 hours per week by 2026. Works council chairman Manfred Schoch spoke of a historic success in the harmonization of working conditions between East and West. “More than 30 years after the fall of the Wall, our BMW Group employees from the East finally don’t have to work three hours a week more than their colleagues from the West.”
To compensate for the shorter weekly working hours, 300 additional employees are to be hired. Around 5,300 people currently work at the BMW Leipzig plant. At the start of production in 2005 there were still 2,300 employees. Around 1,100 cars are built in the factory every day, currently the models BMW 1 Series, BMW 2 Series and the fully electric BMW i3. Battery modules are also manufactured at the site.
In May, VW adjusted the wage conditions for East German employees to those in West Germany and integrated the previously independent VW Sachsen GmbH with plants in Chemnitz, Dresden and Zwickau into Volkswagen AG. The East German VW employees have to work out the shorter working hours themselves, and productivity is to be increased for this.
More: Porsche will introduce the 35-hour week in Leipzig from 2025
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