MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / PARIS
Aircraft manufacturer outlines a series of changes in work practices to avoid large-scale staff reductions
Airbus is planning to negotiate the current slump in airliner demand partly by changing working practices rather than laying off staff.
Unlike Boeing, which revealed plans to lay off 30,000 employees within days of the 11 September attacks, Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard says he aims to avoid redundancies, but new working practices "will equate to a reduction in employee capacity by the equivalent of 6,000 jobs this year".
The moves are the European manufacturer's response to an expected build rate of around 300 aircraft this year, down from the 325 delivered in 2001 and 25% less than the 380-400 aircraft it had originally planned to produce in 2002, before the attacks.
Forgeard says the new practices include reducing overtime, introducing voluntary early retirement, terminating interim contracts, not replacing leavers, and reducing trainee numbers. Natural wastage is set to see Airbus's head count fall by roughly 1,000 this year to 44,500. Labour laws in Germany, France and Spain, where Airbus has the bulk of its plants, make it difficult to lay off employees. In the UK, where Airbus builds wings, regulations are more flexible.
Airbus's 80% shareholder EADS says staff working lower hours will not be paid less, but will instead claim time off in lieu of unpaid overtime accrued last year when production was ramping up.
Late last year unions at the Airbus UK plant at Broughton in north Wales agreed to new working practices, including a shorter working week, in an attempt to limit job cuts. Despite that, some 500 job losses were announced. The UK arm is now operating a 35h working week, in line with its continental European partners.
Forgeard says that Airbus met its annual target of increasing productivity by 3.5% and reducing costs by 1.5% in 2001 and plans to do the same again this year. "We are targeting cost savings of €600 million ($525 million) in 2002," he says. This will be split three ways - €200 million from improved production efficiency, €200 million in research and development spending (excluding the A380 ultra-large airliner) and €200 million in general management costs. With the A318 twinjet having recently begun flight testing, the only major projects that Airbus still has on the drawing board are the A380 and the A400M military transport.
Forgeard warns that job cuts may be inevitable if the crisis deepens or the cost saving plan fails to achieve the anticipated reductions.
Source: Flight International
