Agreement Reached on the Reorientation of Bombardier Transportation in Germany

Bombardier announced in October 2016, the management and employee representatives of Bombardier Transportation have agreed on an outline for the reorientation and safeguarding of the German sites. The cornerstones of this outline were mutually accepted at today’s Supervisory Board meeting. They describe how the sites will specialise in either the development or production of rail technology over the next two to three years. At the core of this specialisation are product innovation, digitalisation and the increased use of modern Industry 4.0 processes.

“It was important that all parties, after intensive negotiations, were able to agree on the cornerstones of the long-term orientation of our sites,” said Wolfgang Tölsner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bombardier Transportation in Germany. “Upon mutual agreement, we accepted a convincing strategy today, setting the course for Bombardier to reach greater efficiency and competitiveness in Germany. This strategy for the future foresees investments of up to 70 million euro in the German sites until 2019. All German sites will remain open.”

The cornerstones stipulate that five German sites will develop into Centres of Competence with a global strategic importance for the entire group. This applies to the sites of Bautzen, Hennigsdorf, Kassel, Mannheim and Siegen. The Görlitz site will also have long-term development outlook. No conceptual changes are foreseen for the sites in Braunschweig and the headquarters in Berlin.

This modernisation and specialisation of the sites will involve some personnel adjustments. Based on current assumptions and depending on market development and order intake, manpower adjustments of up to 2,200 positions, of which 700 temporary positions, will be made gradually until 2020. The personnel adjustments impact all sites in Germany, but the majority of the positions will be in Görlitz and Hennigsdorf.

In all the upcoming measures, employee interests will be adequately represented through a social compensation plan to be agreed upon. Every available tool will be taken into consideration – from collective wage agreements to operational measures – to minimise the impacts of the reorganisation on those employees directly affected. A balance of interests and a social compensation plan are to be agreed near-term. The Supervisory Board expects Management to avoid forced redundancies until 2019.