German carmaker Audi — a subsidiary of struggling auto giant Volkswagen — may cut around 4,500 jobs.
Manager-Magazin reported that the cuts will made in the secondary sector among non-production line staff. The plan is to cut around 15 percent of of the workforce — or 4,500 jobs — the magazine said, quoting an unnamed source at the firm.
Talks are said to be underway between company management and the Works Council, a body elected to represent workers.
In late October, newspaper Bild reported that Audi would halt electric vehicle production at its Brussels plant by the end of February 2025 and did not plan any redundancies until the end of 2024.
Audi is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen (VW) Group. VW Chairwoman Daniela Cavallo — who also chairs the Works Council — has previously announced the group intends to close at least three factories in Germany as part of cost-cutting measures, with the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
Some 120,000 Germans are employed at 10 VW Group plants. Volkswagen has not ruled out layoffs and factory closures for the sake of economy.
According to media reports, job cuts may begin on July 1, 2025. Supporters of austerity measures within the company want to cut up to 30,000 employees. Unions representing VW workers have threatened in response.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has claimed the VW plant closures are the result of bad management decisions — not the polices of his coalition government, which collapsed on Thursday over his differences with Finance Minister Christian Lindner over aid to Ukraine.