The dispute over company pensions has been settled.
(Photo: imago / Jan Huebner)
Munich In the summer of 2020, Opel HR director Ralph Wangemann incurred the wrath of almost all 15,000 employees of the car manufacturer in Germany. Finally, the manager announced at the time that he would comprehensively “modernize” the lucrative pension scheme for employees. Specifically, the labor director had in mind to cut the sum that the group spends annually on the Opel pension by up to 80 percent.
The employees, according to Wangemann’s plan, should in future finance their pension “to a large extent” themselves through their salaries, instead of having all the amounts paid by the company. Internally, there was great indignation. The works council spoke of an “attack” and “dramatic” cuts. Since then there has been a constant dispute in Rüsselsheim. However, management and employee representatives have now agreed on a solution.
Accordingly, the Opel pension will be linked to the European reference interest rate Euribor from next year. “In future, the employment will receive the Euribor plus a 3.25 percent additional payment by the employer as interest,” said an internal circular. Since the Euribor is currently in the red, Opel also wants the deposits to always return at least 3.25 percent interest.
For comparison: So far, the car manufacturer has guaranteed its workforce in Germany an annual interest rate of five percent. The Hessians should effectively save a lot of money in the coming years – but not nearly as much as originally hoped. The planned change to a system in which employees finance a large part of their retirement provision themselves does not materialize. In the future, too, Opel will have to make the contributions alone.
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Should the Euribor rise noticeably in the coming years, Opel could theoretically even incur additional costs. However, the carmaker itself states in a clause that it intends to pay a maximum interest rate of eight percent. “In addition, only the Euribor is paid out without the additional payment,” says the message from the Stellantis subsidiary. All pension entitlements that have already been acquired remain unaffected.
Opel pension is a sensitive issue in the group
The Opel management also assures the employees that they will not make any further cuts in the Opel pension for the next three years. For long-term employees, the options have also been expanded to choose between one-off and installment payments as well as an annuity of the capital.
The Opel pension is considered to be the central asset of the employees. The subject is correspondingly sensitive. Especially since the sums are huge. Opel puts the pension assets of its German employees at more than 2.3 billion euros. The money is administered by Allianz Treuhand GmbH. In the past few decades, the works councils have defended the very good conditions of the Opel pension, which could be a third or even half higher than the statutory pension, to the point of blood.
The workers’ camp can obviously live with the solution that has now been achieved. “This agreement brings security to the employer-financed pension scheme for Opel employees for many years to come,” said Group Works Council Chairman Bernd Lösche. “The comparatively high level of the Opel pension scheme was guaranteed for all employees.”
Labor director Ralph Wangemann is also satisfied. “With the new system, we ensure that our employees continue to benefit from attractive conditions while the company can position itself even more competitively.”
The manager had previously emphasized time and again that in the low interest rate environment, Opel would have to spend a three-digit million amount per year just to compensate for the high guaranteed interest rate for old-age provision. How much these additional payments can be curbed by the effective lowering of the interest rate to 3.25 percent, Opel left open.
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