A first wave of job cuts had already been planned by BMW, but the brand announces that it no longer rules out laying off more people in the midst of an economic crisis.
The endless growth in sales of German brands each year, margins maintained at more than 8%, the large sums paid back to shareholders and flourishing employment are no longer relevant for most premium brands which suffer, like all big companies, shutdown of the economy.
And at BMW, this could materialize in job losses. Manfred Schoch, Chairman of the BMW Group Works Council, recalled that the agreements negotiated with the unions within the company provide for retention of staff, except in one case: when the company records losses.
BMW is entering a phase of financial losses which could encourage it to lay off employees, especially in production, which would be a first for a long time for BMW. Manfred Schoch said that “no one knows what the end of the year will look like” in an audio message to employees. Concretely, the Works Council here clearly warns the employees about the possible consequences of this period of crisis on employment, with a first assessment by the end of the year.
As a reminder, BMW has already planned some 6,000 redundancies, which are in fact mostly unreplaced retirements.
