Mercedes-Benz pushes for reduced work hours and cost cuts amid China slowdown
The automaker’s board plans to trim various employee benefits and end the long-standing 35-hour workweek, arguing that weak sales in China and higher US tariffs demand higher productivity in Germany. The works council opposes the measures, while its chief is exploring a limited two-hour weekly increase for two years in exchange for investment and job guarantees. Plant managers have warned that factories could close if cost reductions are not achieved.
Mercedes-Benz’s executive team is seeking to slash labor expenses by reducing overtime, holiday and Christmas bonuses and by abandoning the 35-hour workweek that has been in place for three decades. The board cites a slump in the Chinese market and rising US tariffs as reasons to boost German productivity. The works council rejects the proposal, with its leader probing a compromise that would allow a two-hour weekly increase for a two-year period, contingent on the company’s investment in new products and the preservation of German jobs.
A plant director warned that a German assembly plant and a power-train facility could be shut down if costs do not fall sharply. The council responded that any threat of closures would meet firm resistance and emphasized the need to protect sites with new technologies, while noting that any agreement would also require IG Metall’s consent.
How the sides frame it
LOW AGREEMENTLeft-leaning coverage frames the plan as a contentious labor dispute that threatens jobs and plant closures, while right-leaning coverage presents it as a business-driven cost-saving effort aimed at €800 million in savings and competitiveness.
LEFT
The story is portrayed as a struggle between management’s cost-cutting push and the works council’s defense of jobs and working conditions.
RIGHT
The story is portrayed as a corporate initiative to slash labour costs by €800 million to stay competitive.
The left emphasises
- cutting overtime, holiday and Christmas bonuses and scrapping the 35-hour week
- works council resistance and demand for a compromise tied to investment and job protection
- threats of plant and power-train facility closures if costs are not reduced
The right emphasises
- aim to achieve €800 million in German labour-cost savings
- options include extending working hours without extra pay and removing special payments
- focus on competitiveness of German production
