Audi investing more in its own young talent – new provisions for employee profit-sharing
Company and employee representatives at AUDI AG have agreed to offer long-term employment to graduating apprentices, students from cooperative education programs and participants in the StEP program (Study and Experience in Practice). Audi is also developing an integrated support and development program for its own young talent.
“With this agreement we are providing our apprentices and students with outstanding prospects while also fulfilling our requirements for qualified personnel for coming years,” said Thomas Sigi, Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Human Resources. The new agreement also allows for apprentices to increasingly gain experience at international locations within the corporate group. This part of the program is intended to support and develop Audi’s young talent beyond the actual vocational training. “Audi is committed to fulfilling its social responsibility and will continue to train young people and then provide them with employment as well. The requirements will be defined each year by the Works Council and the company,” said General Works Council Chairman Peter Mosch.
In addition, the company and employee representatives agreed to replace the old, expanded employee profit-sharing program with the new Audi profit-sharing program, and for the new program to be applicable retroactively for all AUDI AG employees starting in 2011. The special feature of the new agreement is that the company is now establishing a pension benefit at the same volume of the profit sharing program. With this, the company is strengthening its pension plan. “We want to use this to reward our employees’ exceptional achievements and to even better safeguard the future for them. With this agreement, we have achieved that,” Sigi emphasized. “After long negotiations, the General Works Council ensured that Audi’s employees will continue to participate in the company’s success. This is only fair, since it is ultimately the employees who earn this success with their hard work,” explained Mosch.
The Chief Executive of IG Metall in Ingolstadt, Johann Horn, welcomed the outcome of the negotiations: “A lot has been achieved: the effective stipulation of the employee profit-sharing and a bridge to the future for the young generation at Audi through the guarantee of training and hiring in long-term positions. Audi is well positioned for the coming years in terms of its personnel policy.”
As a third component, company and employee representatives agreed during the past summer on new rules for partial retirement. This works agreement offers employees and the company balanced options for arranging the transition from work life into retirement. The new partial retirement scheme is more flexible than the previous one. Various models for the flexible arrangement of work schedules during partial retirement may be selected. Initial individual counseling and contracts have already been concluded.
