Heidenheim. The talks on the capacity utilization at the Voith headquarters in Heidenheim that were entered into in June have produced first interim results. The employees have been informed about these interim results by the Management Board and the Works Council this morning. During the current business year Voith had repeatedly reported about excess capacities at the location and large, structural capacity utilization problems in the Division Voith Paper in Heidenheim.

Against the background of this situation, the employer and the employees had already agreed on a special termination right of the current works agreement for the location per September 30, 2013 and entered into discussions how the capacity can be adapted to the impaired utilization.

Employer, Works Council and the trades union IG Metall have now agreed on a joint key issues paper with solution proposals. Among other points, the paper covers the elimination of approximately 430 jobs at the location. Both parties have agreed to plan the job cuts without redundancies due to operational reasons wherever possible. Should this not be feasible for all of the approximately 430 jobs affected, it is also envisaged to offer a possibility of negotiating possible redundancies from autumn 2014. The job reduction program is to be completed by March 31, 2015. Apart from job cuts it has also been proposed to introduce short-term measures such as a reduction of the working hours of all employees at Heidenheim by up to ten percent in order to eliminate the capacity problems. For this purpose, it is intended to sign a supplementary labor and wage agreement with the trades union IG Metall. A relevant declaration of intent has been drafted on Wednesday this week.

On the basis of this joint key issues paper it is now planned to negotiate all further specific contents and their implementation and to present it to the respective executive committees for approval. It is anticipated that a conclusive result of all negotiations will be reached by the end of September.

Voith sets standards in the markets energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive. Founded in 1867, Voith employs more than 42,000 people, generates €5.7 billion in sales, operates in over 50 countries around the world and is today one of the biggest family-owned companies in Europe.