Aircraft manufacturer Airbus and the giant IG Metall labor union signed on Oct. 19 a deal guaranteeing the jobs of 16,500 workers in Germany until 2020, both parties announced. For the past 18 months, management and unions have been trying to hammer out a wage deal for employees at Airbus's four sites in Germany, in return for commitments to increase employee productivity.
Under the accord, compulsory redundancies will not be made from 2012 to the end of 2020 and the four factories will retain their fields of expertise, IG Metall and Airbus said.
In exchange, "productivity increases were agreed which are clearly over those yearly goals seen until now", Airbus said without providing figures.
The company had proposed during the negotiations an 8% increase in productivity, while IG Metall proposed 5%.
Additionally, the deal resolved the issue of temporary workers, stating they must not make up more than 20% of the workforce on each site between 2012 and 2015, going down to 15% between 2015 and 2020.
"For the onset of a new airplane program the quotas do not apply," IG Metall said.
Some 11,000 employees downed tools on October 7 in a warning strike.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011
