VW Denies Newspaper's Job Cut Report

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MUNICH, October 24, 2008: According to Bettina Mayer, writing for Automotive News Europe, Volkswagen said in a statement today that it has no plans to cut either all or a majority of its temporary staff. A German newspaper reported on Thursday that VW planned to lay off most of its temporary workers.

"The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report is wrong," the statement said. "VW is very flexible in its production and able to adapt to market conditions quickly.

"After exploring the possibility of cutting extra shifts, VW will determine how many temporary workers are needed," the company said.

VW says it currently has 3,700 temporary workers. At the end of this year, the temporary job contracts of 750 VW workers in Germany will expire.

"We cannot avoid hard cuts," VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn was quoted by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as telling 500 managers at the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg.

Temporary workers are favored by the auto industry as they provide the flexibility to react to peaks and troughs in demand.