Ford closes an agreement for the ERE to 1,144 workers with early retirement and compensation

UGT trusts that the ERE will be resolved with "100% voluntariness"

The management of Ford Spain and the majority union at the Almussafes (Valencia) factory, UGT, have reached an agreement on Tuesday to apply an employment regulation file (ERE) that will affect 1,144 workers through early retirement plans from the 53 years and a program of incentivized departures in which the company has raised the amounts of the proposed compensation.

The Valencian factory, with nearly 5,900 employees, hosted this Tuesday the ninth session of the ERE negotiating committee, which ended with an agreement between management and UGT --without the STM union--, after a month of meetings in the one in which union organizations and companies have discussed the age of early retirement and the conditions of compensation, with the aim of attracting a sufficient number of workers on a voluntary basis to avoid traumatic departures.

This Monday the company presented a proposed agreement in which it agreed to lower the age of early retirement to 53 years, as requested by the unions, but under different conditions from those of the rest of the older workers. The unions rejected it and the management advanced that this Tuesday it would present a final proposal.

Now, UGT has explained that the company has finally agreed to its "main claim" and has offered voluntary exit plans for those born in 1969 and 1970. "It has also significantly improved the amounts offered for incentivized leave", it has highlighted the union, which "trusts" that the agreement will serve to resolve the ERE with "100% voluntary".

In this way, the union has pointed out, "complicated negotiations have ended, both due to the amount of surplus personnel raised, as well as the existing age groups in the factory", and UGT adds that "it has been key to have an agreement to electrification, since, while guaranteeing the continuity of the factory, it has made it possible to demand from the local and European Ford management the commitment it has with the workforce", "for which reason it was obliged to lower the ages of adhesion to the plan and to set decent conditions for departure".

ERE CONDITIONS

The agreement for the ERE is made up of an early retirement plan to which workers aged 53 and over can join and another of compensatory economic indemnities.

In the early retirement plan, workers aged 53 and 54 will receive 75% of the regulatory salary until they turn 57 and 80% thereafter, compared to the offer on Monday with percentages of 70% and 75%.

The maximum date for payment of gross income and special Social Security contributions will be up to 62 years of age in the case of 52-year-old employees and up to 63 for 54-year-old workers.

Employees who sign up at ages 55 and 56 will receive 80% of the regulatory salary up to age 57 and 85% thereafter, as the company proposed on Monday.

The maximum date for payment of gross income would be until the age of 64 in the case of the 55-year-old workforce and up to the age of 65 for 56-year-old workers. In the same way, the maximum date of payment of the special agreement with Social Security would be until the age of 63 and 64, respectively.

Workers aged 57 or over will receive 85% of the monthly regulatory salary, with a special agreement with Social Security and a maximum date for payment of gross income up to 65 years of age.

Regarding the compensation plan, all employees born after January 1, 1960 will be eligible, with the exception of those linked by a temporary contract, relief or access to partial retirement.

The management has increased the additional compensation in voluntary departures up to 40,000 euros in the event that they are carried out by June 30 and maintains it at 20,000 euros for departures prior to September 30.

In addition to this amount, employees up to 54 years of age will receive compensation of 45 days per year of work, with a maximum of 42 monthly wages and a minimum of one annuity. Employees between the ages of 55 and 63 will receive the compensation provided for in the agreement.

CEASE OF MANUFACTURING OF THE S-MAX AND GALAXY MODELS

The agreement for this ERE comes in the same month that the Almussafes factory says goodbye to the manufacture of the S-Max and Galaxy models because the multinational is accelerating its strategy towards the total electrification of its passenger cars in 2030 and of all its portfolio in 2035.

Thus, it will be left with the production of only the Kuga, the currently heaviest, until the manufacture of the new electric ones that have been assigned to the Valencian factory.

Almussafes was the factory chosen by Ford to produce the company's new electric vehicle platform from 2025, a decision that ensured the workload for years to come, although the company's management explained that the transformation of production It would also mean downsizing the workforce because the manufacture of electric vehicles requires less manpower.