Background information

The automotive industry was seriously hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and all major car producers in Slovakia, including their suppliers, interrupted or reduced their production for several weeks. In relation to the pandemic, the government adopted a package of measures to alleviate its impact on employers, employees as well as citizens. Affected employers in the automotive industry, needed to respond properly to maintaining employment and restart of production. One of them was Volkswagen Slovakia, Bratislava, where it was a threat of serious decline in usual income of employees.

Content of measure

During the standard operation, the remuneration system in VW Slovakia in Bratislava includes  bonuses based on the defined production goals, e.g. bonuses for working groups make 5-10% over the wage tariffs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, working groups were unable to achieve the defined production goals after the restart of production, that would result in lower wages of employees. To stabilise the workforce, the management of Volkswagen Slovakia in Bratislava and the Modern Trade Unions Volkswagen (MOV) agreed on exceptional rules for the remuneration of employees in the existing collective agreement. The bonuses of working groups will be 8% of wage tariffs regardless of the actual achievement of defined production goals.

Use of measure

The agreement between the MOV and the management of Volkswagen Slovensko in Bratislava will be applied also to VW plants in Martin and Stupava. Agreed bonuses for working groups over employees´ wage tariffs will be paid during the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2020. For instance, an employee performing a job classified in the middle of wage tariffs, would obtain a bonus over his or her wage tariff in amount of about €150-200 in average.

Contents

• Bonuses
• Income protection

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Larger corporations	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Social partners jointly Company / Companies	Companies Employer

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

This is a joint initiative of management of Volkswagen Slovakia in Bratislava and the local trade union Moderné odbory Volkswagen.

Views and reactions

According to the available information, implementation of the temporary provision in the collective agreement agreed with management contributed to keeping the income stability of employees in Volkswagen Slovensko. Despite of temporary interruption of production and problems with achieving the defined production goals after its restart, employees obtained bonuses over their wage tariffs in a fixed amount. Actually paid bonuses were, in many cases, higher than usual bonuses paid during the standard operation.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 16 March 2020: Moderné odbory Volkswagen (moderneodbory.sk)