MAN Truck & Bus has officially launched MAN2030+ – a programme that aims to strengthen competitiveness and secure the future of its existing locations, all of which have been fully agreed with employee representatives.
In a key issues paper; the company, alongside the co-determination body and IG Metall, has specified the main measures of the project, which are intended to reduce costs at MAN by roughly 900 million EUR by 2028 whilst improving the company’s performance in the long term.
Meanwhile, investments of nearly 1 billion EUR are set to be made across MAN Truck & Bus SE’s German locations by the end of 2030 in addition to new investments necessary for the next generation of vehicles based on the future TRATON Modular System (TMS).
A majority of these investments will be made in Bavarian locations, with the number of jobs at MAN Truck & Bus SE’s German locations set to be adjusted over the next few years in line with demographic trends, making use of natural fluctuation.
This will provide a chance to avoid redundancies for operational reasons as well as cost-intensive severance programmes. Around 2,300 jobs are set to be lost as part of MAN 2030+, which, according to the company, will be significantly less in Germany over a decade-long-period than the number of employees retiring during the same time frame.
Munich will see around 1,300 jobs lost, Nuremberg around 400 and Salzgitter around 600. Wittlich will not be affected by the measures, and wage cuts have also been ruled out in the programme.
MAN CEO and TRATON Executive Board member Alexander Vlaskamp, said:Following intensive negotiations, we have now reached agreement with our employee representatives on the implementation of key cornerstones of the MAN2030+ program. The plan secures MAN’s competitiveness and guarantees our customers a broad product portfolio as a full liner, which forms the basis for the company’s future success. This will enable us to secure the jobs of our current employees also in the future.
With our continued high level of investment in Germany, we are fulfilling our industrial policy responsibilities. We will now consistently implement the long-term MAN2030+ program in order to counteract intensifying competition, changing market conditions, and major regulatory risks at an early stage.
In an effort to ensure the investments are viable, a number of cost-cutting measures will also form part of the MAN 2030+ programme, which are set to amount to around 900 million EUR. MAN has stated that these are not dependent on the workforce, and will include savings in material and overhead costs, as well as an increase in sales performance.
With this in mind, the signatory parties agreed in the key issues paper to secure long-term employment for MAN Truck & Bus SE employees in Germany until the end of 2035 and to retain all German production sites. A number of factors relating the the comppany’s performance could, potentially, also see this extended until the end of 2040. This security measure also covers TRATON R&D Germany GmbH, to which large parts of MAN’s development workforce moved last year.
The initiative will also see the construction of an additional battery factory in Eastern Europe – though this is dependent on the further increase of e-mobility across the truck and bus sector.
