Airbus will not make forced redundancies in France, Germany and Britain

The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus will not make forced redundancies in France, Germany and Britain. The company said this on Thursday after concluding an agreement with the German trade union IG Metall to protect jobs by the end of 2023. Airbus has seen a sharp drop in demand for new aircraft as a result of the new coronavirus pandemic and the fall in air traffic. In addition, several airlines canceled a significant number of orders due to financial problems. The restructuring plan, which should enable the company to reduce costs and mitigate high losses, envisages the reduction of 15,000 jobs, especially at the French headquarters and in the German plants, but achieving this goal is difficult. The IG Metall trade union and the works council, which represent Airbus employees in Germany, said they had agreed with the company's management on a package of measures to prevent forced redundancies and plant closures by the end of 2023. Airbus employs approximately 55,000 people in Germany. According to an Airbus spokesman, other forms of redundancies have been agreed instead of forced redundancies. These include voluntary retirement, early retirement or intra-corporate transfers. Through a voluntary departure, Airbus has already reduced the number of employees in Airbus Germany and the Premium Aerotec division between November and the end of February. In Airbus Germany, 1,300 employees agreed to leave, and in Premium Aerotec, about a thousand.