Peugeot To Respect Job Pledges If Opel Deal Goes Ahead

Peugeot to respect job pledges if Opel deal goes ahead

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Feb, 2017 ) : French carmaker PSA has promised to uphold job guarantees at Opel if its plan to take over the German arm of US giant General Motors goes ahead, the firm and worker representatives said Tuesday.

At a meeting Monday with Opel's works council and the powerful IG Metall union, PSA chief Carlos Tavares "reaffirmed (the French group's) commitment to respect the existing agreements in the European countries and to continue the dialogue with all parties," a joint statement said.

Opel workers have secured a jobs guarantee from the current management that runs until the end of 2018 and a pledge to continue investing in German sites until 2020, among other deals. The surprise announcement last week that PSA was eyeing Opel prompted fears in Germany that PSA -- the parent company of Peugeot, Citroen and DS -- could cut non-French jobs if the deal goes ahead.

Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed last week to do "everything politically possible to secure jobs and sites in Germany." But on Monday, CEO Tavares "communicated convincingly in the talks that he is interested in a sustainable development for Opel/Vauxhall as an independent company," said works council chairman Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug.

"PSA's ambition is to make the cooperation and the quality of relations with employee representatives a competitive advantage," Tavares said. Both sides hope the merger will produce "a European champion with French-German roots to protect the future of the company and its employees," the statement read.

Peugeot's commitment to cooperate with employees is "an important signal" and "the basis to shape a possible merger constructively for the workers," said the head of IG Metall's central German branch, Joerg Koehlinger.

Opel operates some 10 factories in Europe spread across six countries, and had 35,600 employees at the end of 2015 -- 18,250 of them in Germany. Founded in 1862, Opel, with its lightning-bolt emblem, has long been a familiar sight on German and European roads.

But in recent years the firm has booked repeated losses, costing Detroit-based GM around $15 billion (14 billion Euros) since 2000. A sharp fall in the pound since Britain's vote to quit the EU last June sank Opel's hopes of getting back into the black in 2016, and it ended up reporting a loss of $257 million.

Britain, where it sells vehicles under the Vauxhall brand, is Opel's largest European market.