Porsche 2011 Annual Report Download - page 83

Employment pact for subsidiaries of Porsche AG
The executive board and the central works
council together with management and the local works
councils of subsidiaries have entered into employment
pacts for some of the German subsidiaries.
Having already concluded an employment
pact for Porsche AG last year, Porsche establishes
with this agreement the preconditions for further
raising productivity and flexibility and the basis for a
positive development of business in the long term
also at its subsidiaries.
In return, the subsidiaries will make invest-
ments in infrastructure and innovation projects in the
coming years. The measures aimed at securing in-
vestment and employment are balanced in terms of
social impact and strike a balance between the com-
pany's needs and the interests of employees.
Industrial safety at Porsche
In the course of building the new paint shop
and performing the conversion measures at the
chassis plant for the new generation of vehicles,
Porsche has faced new challenges in industrial safety.
Throughout the construction process from design to
plant operation, the Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH
group partnered with its suppliers to come up with
efficient solutions that not only ensure industrial
safety but also enable its operators in charge to
comply with their legal duties.
The automation technology and the require-
ment on smart safeguards for machines make this
overarching collaboration essential in order to ensure
uninterrupted operation. We also combine in this
context the objective of ensuring and improving the
health and safety of our employees through this inte-
grative process – supplemented by measures for
promoting health in the workplace.
Other elements of our safety philosophy en-
compass our management's role model function, the
systematic assessment of risk relating to workflows
and individual activities as well as increasing our
employees' awareness for safety based on regular
workplace safety instructions, seminars and training.
Employment situation in the Volkswagen group
As of 31 December 2011, the Volkswagen
group had 482,447 active employees; 4,488 were in
the passive phase of phased early retirement. 15,021
people were in vocational traineeships. At the end of
the fiscal year 2011, the Volkswagen group employed
501,956 people. The number of employees has thus
increased by 25.7 percent compared to the figure as
of 31 December 2010. A total of 224,851 people
were employed in Germany (plus 24.0 percent). The
German share of the workforce fell from 45.4 percent
as of 31 December 2010 to 44.8 percent as of 31
December 2011.
Starting a career at Volkswagen
A key factor in the development of Volks-
wagen’s outstanding team is vocational training.
Volkswagen has stepped up its commitment to dual
education and training and has introduced vocational
training at new sites. At the end of 2011, the group
had 15,021 employees in vocational training world-
wide. As of 31 December 2011, Volkswagen AG was
training approximately 4,667 vocational trainees and
students in 33 professions and 20 degree courses at
its six German locations under the StIP integrated
study and traineeship scheme. In response to the
accelerated course of study leading to the university
entrance exam in Germany, and the resulting dou-
bling of the number of students finishing school in
2011, Volkswagen AG established an additional 66
vocational training positions. New vocational training
positions were also created at Volkswagen Osnabrück
GmbH in the reporting period. In 2010, this site had
already made it possible for the vocational trainees
and students in the StIP integrated study and train-
eeship scheme who had been terminated by the
insolvent Wilhelm Karmann GmbH to continue their
training. An additional 29 vocational trainees and
students in the StIP scheme were hired in 2011; 11
of them are women in industrial and technical fields.
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