Audi seeks to renegotiate job protections as workers fear cuts
Friday 9th October 2026 on 16:45 in
Bavaria
Audi wants to reopen its employment security agreement, prompting concern among workers about further job cuts. Around 7,000 employees attended a staff meeting at the company’s headquarters in Ingolstadt on Friday, BR reported.
Chief Executive Gernot Döllner said the automotive industry was undergoing a fundamental transformation and that economic conditions had worsened significantly. Audi plans to invoke a clause that allows the company and works council to negotiate changes to working conditions and costs early if the economic situation deteriorates substantially.
The agreement reached in March 2025 bars compulsory redundancies until December 31, 2033, and protects monthly collectively agreed pay and certain allowances. In return, Audi plans to cut up to 7,500 jobs in indirect areas by 2029 through socially responsible measures such as phased retirement. Employees also accepted financial concessions, including changes to their profit-sharing payments.
Audi said it was making progress on the reductions. By June, about 4,500 of up to 6,000 job cuts planned by the end of 2027 had been completed or agreed. Döllner said there were no specific plans for further cuts yet, and no timeline for the talks had been set.
The company has not said which parts of the 2025 agreement it wants to renegotiate. The works council said it would examine whether the conditions for invoking the clause had been met. Overall works council chair Jörg Schlagbauer said Audi would not grow by making itself smaller, and called for a clear direction, strong products and a shared strategy for the company’s future.
Deputy works council chair Rita Beck said employees would consider further concessions only if Audi offered binding prospects for jobs, products and locations. “Audi’s future has not been decided. It is being negotiated now. And there will be no contributions without prospects from us,” she said.
Audi’s revenue fell by just over 10 percent to 29 billion euros in the first half of the year. A report by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung said a successor to the A8, currently built in Neckarsulm, could be manufactured at Porsche’s Leipzig plant. No decision has been made; the move would be a serious blow to the Neckarsulm plant, the report said.