Audi Plans New Working Time Systems

The personnel management and Works Council of AUDI AG have now established the main points of future personnel policy at a closed meeting. Securing jobs on a long-term basis at the Audi plants in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm is the focal point of this policy. New working time systems that will enable flexible planning of plant operating times are being developed. They are based on a joint framework agreement between the AUDI AG management and the General Works Council. One of the goals is that the investment required for a new A3 derivative will be made in Ingolstadt. “The new working time systems are designed to provide the company with more flexibility and the individual with more personal freedom to plan,” explains Dr. Horst Neumann, Member of the Board for Human Resources at AUDI AG.

Training, equal opportunities, the compatibility of work and family through parent and family leave as well as the greater integration of unemployed youth will be promoted through a more flexible organisation of working time. In addition, the opportunity for individual employment contracts over several years, e.g. within the scope of project work, will be created.

The development of the framework agreement will take place during the rest of the year on the basis of the agreement “The future at Audi – perspectives for company and personnel” and the legal and negotiated provisions will be declared in a new corporate agreement. The main aims of the existing agreement “The future at Audi” are the improvement of Audi’s competitiveness, corporate growth and long-term job security through the exclusion of industry-related redundancies. “We are building on these proven aspects. We are also increasing flexibility within the company structure so we can secure our sites in the long term,” explained Xaver Maier, Chairman of the General Works Council of AUDI AG.

Other main points are initial training, further training and obtaining qualifications. Within the framework of occupational training, a stronger networking of work and learning and a period of training more closely allied to the job are planned through learning stations and value-added activities. E-learning and special employee portals will open up the opportunity in the future for a more individualised, flexible period of training. “Life-long learning is becoming an ever more concrete reality,” states the Chairman of the Works Council at the Neckarsulm plant, Norbert Rank.