Greater working time flexibility at Volkswagen plant in Brussels

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At Volkswagen's plant in Brussels, a new collective agreement has extended weekend working in response to production requirements. This agreement, signed in July 1998, does not call into question the plan to reduce working hours introduced under the terms of a 1997 agreement.

In 1997, a company agreement at Volkswagen's plant in Forest/Vorst (Brussels) introduced a reduction of working hours linked with a greater use of night and Saturday working. This working time agreement, signed on 16 September 1997, was based on two pillars - flexibility and productivity through the reduction of working hours (BE9709116N).

The main points were as follows.

• The reduction of weekly working hours from 36 to 35 for workers on day shifts. The transition was staggered until 1999 and effected by increasing the number of compensatory rest days (from 26 to 30 per year). The reduction to 35 hours was financed by the wage margin - ie a wage rise of BEF 5 an hour planned for blue-collar workers for 1997 and 1998 under the sectoral agreement signed by the Fabrimetal metalworking employers' organisation was forgone in order to finance the reduction of working hours. The two extra days off planned for 1999 are financed by using the wage rises provided for in company collective agreements concluded at Volkswagen.

• The reduction of weekly working hours from 36 to 32 for workers on night shifts. The 32-hour week means a total of 46 compensatory rest days in 1998 and 48 in 1999. The reduction to 32 hours led to an 8.57 % cut in gross pay, equivalent to BEF 4,000 a month or BEF 56,000 a year. For a worker previously on day shift, moving to the 32-hour week night-shift working pattern means a wage rise of about 10% because of the night-shift bonus. The workers have therefore given up an increase in purchasing power to commit themselves to a dynamic impetus towards reductions in working hours.

• A maximum of four Saturdays a year may be worked per worker, and only when all compensatory rest days for that period are used up. There is generally no financial compensation, but workers are entitled to time off in lieu for the hours worked, plus 50%, and to have their transport costs reimbursed. Saturday work should be used to meet increased production needs or to make up any loss of production.

• Replacement of collective holidays by individual holidays, which will make it possible for the plant to run at maximum capacity. In 1998, the plant is open on 245 days throughout the year instead of 225 days, and the summer holiday of individual workers varied from none at all to four weeks.

• Production capacity rose from 1,000 to 1,200 vehicles a day. The production of night shifts was doubled (so was the size of the night shift) to equal that of the day shift. This agreement meant that management could extend the period of machinery utilisation, and so increase production, without new investment. Annual production was to rise from 200,000 to 240,000 units.

• Although not set out in the agreement, 400 to 600 new jobs were likely, but the management stressed their temporary nature.

At the time, for management, this agreement was essentially about part-time work, while unions spoke of a reduction of working hours. However, both sides described the agreement as a guarantee of the firm's future and therefore of employment. The deal guaranteed employment until 1999 and would save the 700 to 800 jobs under threat from the assembly of a new model in the plant, that needed fewer hours of work. The employment aspects of the agreement were divided into two parts, a dynamic part (compensatory recruitment) and a defensive part (jobs under threat were maintained and a job-guarantee clause was included).

Deterioration of relations within the firm

More than nine months after the conclusion of the agreement on the reduction of weekly working hours to 35, the VW personnel manager noted that demand for the new Golf model was greater than expected. Following a series of technical and supply problems, however, production was lower than that provided for under the agreement, and this led to a deterioration in industrial relations. The four Saturdays planned in the agreement had long been worked and, in order to meet the demand for production, VW had resorted to overtime; by 31 June 1998, 200,000 hours of overtime had already been worked, equivalent to 150 workers. Moreover, VW Belgium had recruited about 1,100 people under temporary employment contracts, only 150 of which were due to the reduction of working hours. Some 250 workers had chosen the 32-hour week, 80% of them from the night shift

On 24 June 1998, a company doctor's alleged negligence in connection with a worker's illness was the starting point for a series of strike actions which revealed, as if proof were needed, the serious discontent in the company (BE9806239N).

Establishment of a weekend shift

The dispute was concluded on 14 July 1998 by a new collective agreement. It provided for the creation of a weekend production shift in the bodywork and painting workshops. The new shift becomes operational in September 1998, made up of 300 volunteers. The timetable consists of Fridays from 06.00 to 14.00, Saturdays from 06.00 to 17.00 and Sundays from 19.00 to 06.00. On average, volunteers will work a 30-hour week. Night bonuses added to the wage for 30 hours gives the weekend shift a level of pay equivalent to that of other shifts. Temporary workers already employed in the firm may be given preference in the composition of the weekend shift.

The agreement even mentions the possibility of setting up a second weekend shift for all production units as from 1999. The second shift would work according to the same timetable, with an added period (Mondays from 22.00 to 06.00). The two teams would total between 1,200 and 1,300 workers.

The creation of a weekend shift will allow VW management to make up the backlog in production under the 1998 forecasts: 1,050 cars ought to have left the factory every day, making an annual total of 239,750, but production currently stands at no more than 800-850 cars.

Commentary

The agreement does not call into question the reduction of working hours. The low level of production was due only to technical problems and to the poor adaptation of work organisation for the new Golf model. This led management to set up a new production shift, which should make it possible for VW Belgium to re-establish its position within the VW group. This includes extending the contracts of temporary workers and improving industrial relations, which were badly damaged by the non-observance of working hours rules and the company doctor's alleged error of diagnosis on a worker suffering a medical condition. No reference is made in the new agreement to the statutory aid available to assist with the reduction of working hours (BE9711123F). (Corinne Soudan, DULBEA-ULB)