Car supplier Bosch to cut working hours for employees in Germany

German automotive supplier Bosch logo is pictured on a plant of the industrial group in Schwaebisch Gmuend. Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

In addition to cutting thousands of jobs, German automotive supplier and engineering giant Bosch is also reducing the weekly working hours of some of its employees in Germany in order to cut costs.

A total of around 10,000 workers at Bosch are affected by the cuts, a Bosch spokeswoman told dpa on Saturday.

Most of the affected employees have contracts that provide for weekly working hours of 38 to 40 hours. With the reduction in working hours, the salary will also be reduced accordingly.

As of March 1, 2025, employees at Bosch's headquarters in the Stuttgart suburb of Gerlingen and at Bosch's facilities in Stuttgart itself will only work 35 hours per week.

The wholly owned subsidiary Bosch Engineering will also be among the divisions affected. Since October, 2,300 workers there have only been allowed to work 37 hours per week instead of 40 - and plans now call for cutting hours further to 36 per week.

The company had previously announced some of the compulsory reductions in working hours.

The announcement was criticized by Frank Sell, head of the works council at Bosch's automotive supplier division and the deputy chairman of the supervisory board of the Bosch foundation.

"We have also reached a new low in our cooperation with the management as a result of the company's unilateral intervention in employees' pay," Sell said.

The latest move by management to slash hours puts social peace in the company at risk, he said: "We will now organize our resistance to these plans at all levels."

Germany's automotive industry is currently in crisis, with cost-cutting under way at several firms. The country's famed carmakers have struggled with tough economic conditions, increased competition in the once-lucrative Chinese market and other headwinds.

Given those struggles, Bosch on Friday announced plans to cut more jobs than previously known.

In the coming years, there will be a further "need for adjustment" of up to 5,550 jobs worldwide, as the company recently announced. More than two thirds of these - a total of 3,800 jobs - are to be cut in Germany.