Porsche Plans to Cut Over a Third of German Workforce, About 8,900 Jobs, via Attrition and Pay Reductions
Porsche plans to cut more than a third of its German workforce, about 8,900 positions, through natural attrition, partial retirement and voluntary severance, as it seeks to cut costs and protect remaining jobs and factories until 2035. The Stuttgart-based sports-car maker will eliminate 5,000 positions at its main Zuffenhausen plant and Weissach development centre, building on a previous agreement to cut 1,900 jobs in the Stuttgart area and the expiry of about 2,000 temporary contracts. Employees face significant concessions, including a delayed pay rise, a lower Christmas bonus cap, and reduced remote work, following negotiations with IG Metall and Südwestmetall.
Porsche plans to cut more than a third of its workforce in Germany in order to reduce costs and protect the remaining employees and existing production sites until 2035. The Stuttgart-based sports-car maker will eliminate another 5,000 positions at its main Zuffenhausen plant and its Weissach development centre. The job cuts will be carried out through natural attrition, partial retirement programmes and voluntary severance agreements, with no compulsory redundancies.
As part of the restructuring, employees will need to make significant concessions. Porsche will postpone a 3.5% collective pay rise for workers covered by specific pay agreements, and senior managers will forgo parts of their scheduled base salary increases for 2027 and 2028. The company’s Christmas bonus, which is currently capped at the equivalent of one full month’s salary, will be gradually reduced to 60%. Future bonuses will be more closely tied to Porsche’s profitability and overall performance. Remote work will be reduced from 12 days per month to eight, and rest schedules and production cycle times will also be adjusted. The plan has been negotiated with the IG Metall union and the Südwestmetall employers’ association. IG Metall members will receive an extra day of annual leave and a 200 euro voucher, while ordinary employees will get a one-off 1,500 euro transition payment in August, with union members receiving 1,911 euros.
A previous agreement already identified around 1,900 job cuts in the Stuttgart area by 2029, and about 2,000 temporary contracts have expired. Porsche has also cut some positions in Leipzig and announced the closure of three subsidiaries that together employ more than 500 people.
Audi recently lowered its revenue and profit forecasts, with net profit in the second quarter falling about 21% to 563 million euros.