Bosch cuts working hours for employees at headquarters

This was announced by a company spokesperson on Thursday. The vast majority of employees work in Gerlingen and Stuttgart. The employees affected previously had contracts that provided for a working week of 38 to 40 hours.

With the reduction in working hours, the salary will also be reduced accordingly. Stuttgarter Zeitung" and "Stuttgarter Nachrichten" had previously reported on this.

In order to reduce costs, the automotive supplier has also recently started to reduce working hours at its wholly-owned subsidiary Bosch Engineering. Since October, 2,300 associates there have only been allowed to work 37 hours per week instead of 40. Here too, the shorter working hours are accompanied by a corresponding reduction in salary.

The plan is to reduce the working week by a further hour to 36 hours at the turn of the year. By far the largest proportion of employees affected by this will work at the Bosch site in Abstatt near Heilbronn.

Thousands of job cuts

In recent months, Bosch has repeatedly announced plans to cut jobs worldwide. In total, more than 7000 jobs are at stake. The majority of the jobs affected are in Germany - including in areas of the automotive supplier division, but also in the tools division and at the household appliance subsidiary BSH. The company had not ruled out further job cuts.

Just a few days ago, Bosch CEO Stefan Hartung declared at an event organized by the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" that reducing the working hours of employees on 40-hour contracts was fair. It would be better to resort to such measures before cutting jobs. At the same time, he explained that the company is committed to employment protection contracts, as agreed for the German locations of the automotive division.