"In the future fields [of company’s activities] new competences and about 9,000 additional future-proof jobs must be created at various locations. … In the coming years Volkswagen is going to follow the population curve slashing 23,000 jobs through fluctuations and retirement. That will be made clearly without forced redundancies," the statement said.
The plan agreed by the management board and the works council also implies 3.5-billion-euro (over $3.7 billion) investments in the future fields of company’s activities.
The company expects to get a 3.7-billion-euro positive effect from the agreed plan after 2020.
In September 2015, Volkswagen found itself in the middle of a public scandal when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accused the automaker of using software to falsify emission test results for its diesel-engine cars. Millions of diesel-engine Volkswagen vehicles manufactured between 2009 and 2015 were estimated to have been programmed to cheat emissions tests for nitrogen oxide. Volkswagen admitted that 11 million of its vehicles worldwide had been fitted with software to cheat emissions tests. The scandal worsened economic positions of the car manufacturer.