Agreement to reduce working time at Volkswagen Belgium

Some months after the closure of the Renault plant at Vilvoorde, a company agreement was approved in September 1997 at another car plant in Belgium - Volkswagen's Forest factory - which introduces reductions in working time, allowing the preservation of jobs and the possible creation of new ones.

On 15 September 1997, 76% of the 5,200 workers at Volkswagen's Forest factory, in the Brussels Capital Region, voted in favour of a draft agreement concluded by their unions and the company's management. The agreement provides for a reduction in working time for all workers from 36 to 35 hours per week, and, on a voluntary basis, a 32-hour week for night-shift workers. In compensation to the company, employees will give up a pay rise included in the metalworking industry agreement. In addition, night workers volunteering for the 32-hour week will lose 8.5% of their gross pay.

Management stresses the flexibility, productivity and cost-reduction aspects of the agreement. "The real problem was that, in order to satisfy the demands of the group's world management for productivity, there were 1,000 people too many at Forest. We had two options: make the same number of cars with a reduced workforce, or make more cars with the same number of people. We chose to go for the second", declared Mr Croonen, spokesperson for VW Forest. The current four weeks' annual closure will be abolished, Saturday work increased and night-shift production will be brought into line with that for day shifts.

The agreement could lead to the recruitment of 400 to 600 workers on supply or temporary-work contracts, though it contains no such formal commitment. The amount of recruitment would depend on factors such as the number of volunteers for the 32-hour night shift, career breaks, the staggering of holidays and early retirement. "Employment is guaranteed until 1999, and the agreement gives us hope for more recruitment opportunities in a sector with major overcapacity at European level," said Claude Dufrasne, a union delegate from the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV).

This agreement is the result of negotiations between management and unions which began several years ago. It is more the outcome of the group headquarters' policy in Germany (where the four-day week was introduced in 1993) and the unions' determination, than a reaction to the emotion provoked by the closure of Renault's Vilvoorde plant earlier in 1997 (EU9704118F).

The agreement runs counter to the official position of the sectoral employers' organisation, the Federation of the Metalworking Industries (Fabrimetal), which is firmly opposed to any reduction of working hours and instead proposes the extension of part-time work.

Robert Plasman, an economist at the Free University of Brussels, stresses that Volkswagen is the first major firm in Belgium to adopt the 32-hour week for night work. According to Mr Plasman, this is in line with the proposal repeatedly made in scientific and technical circles that priority be given to the reduction of working time particularly for arduous work and unsocial hours. He also believes it is logical for the agreement to link the reduction of working time with the maximisation of production capacity.

For most observers, this is one of the most interesting company agreements concluded over the last few years.

References

"La réduction du temps de travail: Mission impossible", J Freyssinet, CFDT Aujourd'hui, n°123, March-April 1997.

"Emploi et temps de travail: un tour d'horizon international", W Roche et al, Revue internationale du Travail, Vol. 135, n°2 (1996).

"Conséquences d'une réduction massive du temps de travail sur la division sexuée du travail familial: le cas de Volkswagen", H Seifert, Les Cahiers du MAGE, n° 2/97.