Employees at the automotive supplier ZF have to fear for their jobs. In order to become more efficient, the company wants to shrink significantly. The works council is showing a combative attitude.
The automotive supplier ZF is planning to cut thousands of jobs in the coming years. The company plans to cut between 11,000 and 14,000 jobs in Germany by the end of 2028. The extent to which reductions are planned at the locations is now being specified. “We believe there is no alternative,” said a company spokesman. The ZF General Works Council announced resistance. “We will fight for every single job,” explained ZF Works Council Chairman Achim Dietrich.
Many of the jobs will be eliminated without termination agreements. “The reduction will be carried out in a socially acceptable manner as far as possible, with ZF taking advantage of the demographic structure of the workforce and the fluctuation,” the company said. ZF is planning to establish several site networks with leaner structures. The company currently employs 54,000 people in Germany.
Works council sees “managerial failure”
The announcement stirs up fears “when we actually need full commitment to supplying customers, overcoming the recession and transformation,” continued ZF Works Council Chairman Dietrich. The plans distract from a managerial failure. “The ZF Board of Management has decided against the future of locations and thousands of employees in Germany and will face bitter resistance for doing so.”
The heavily indebted company imposed a strict cost-cutting program on itself in the spring. This year and next year, costs worldwide are to be reduced by around six billion euros, it said in February. ZF wants to use this to put itself in a better position to tackle the further transition to e-mobility from 2026.
ZF CEO Holger Klein had already announced in April that the number of employees in Germany would not be able to be maintained in the future. “With the measures now decided, we want to strengthen our competitiveness and consolidate our position as one of the world’s leading suppliers,” he explained.
High debt burdens ZF
The main reason for the cost-cutting measures is the group’s high level of debt. This is primarily due to the acquisition of the automotive supplier TRW and the brake specialist Wabco. The group is currently paying hundreds of millions of euros in interest – which is missing in research and development, for example. At the same time, the automotive supplier, which is majority owned by the Zeppelin Foundation of the city of Friedrichshafen, will have to invest billions in the coming years in order to master the transformation.
Around 169,000 people work for ZF worldwide. Around 10,300 people are employed at Lake Constance. ZF is represented at more than 160 production sites in 31 countries. In 2023, the company achieved sales of around 46.6 billion euros.
Source: Stern