The new chairman of the board of directors of Škoda Auto, Thomas Schäfer, met with the chairman of the corporate council, trade union leader Jaroslav Povšík. He appreciated the work of the unions, according to him it is a system that works extremely well.
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Schäfer became Chairman of the Board on Monday, August 3. The Škoda Auto unions are known for their success in negotiating wage growth.
Schäfer and Povšík discussed, among other things, the system of employee representation of trade unions. “It’s a great system that works extremely well, it’s an exemplary partnership that has the common goal of keeping this business going in a successful direction,” Schäfer told the weekly.
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Schäfer said communication with the unions would be a priority for him. “Communication between partners is always important. I have behaved accordingly in my entire professional life, ie regular discussion and exchange of views, sometimes we have to argue a bit. But in the end, a common goal and result always counts,” said Schäfer.
According to him, the employee is always the focal point. “Perhaps something says about me that in my previous position I was called the chairman for people. Employees are the key to the success of Škoda Auto,” said the new boss.
“With immediate effect, I belong to the Škoda team. I have no other task than to lead this company to maximum success. I am not a person who would come up with a hurry to move on in a few years. On the contrary, I want to lead the company to prosperity,” he said. Schäfer.
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Schäfer began his career in the automotive industry as a mechanical engineer in 1991 at Daimler AG. Schäfer joined the top management of Volkswagen in 2012. Since 2015, he has been the General Manager of the South African Representation, covering the entire sub-Saharan African region.
This year, the unions negotiated with the company a wage increase of 5.7 percent, from April 1, 2021 it will increase by another 2,000 crowns. The new collective agreement will be valid for two years, ie until 31 March 2021. The average gross wage of an employee who is remunerated on the basis of tariffs in 2018 in the company was CZK 51,275. This year, employees also received a record one-time bonus of CZK 80,000.
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One of the best results of collective bargaining was achieved by the unions in 2018, the tariff wages of Škoda Auto employees increased retroactively from April 1 by 12 percent. At the same time, employees received a one-time payment of CZK 7,000 in April’s salary. In May, they received a one-time bonus of CZK 60,000. The trade unionists described the agreed wage growth as the highest since the merger of the company with the Volkswagen Group.
Last year, Škoda Auto delivered 1.24 million cars worldwide. It operates three production plants in the Czech Republic, produces in China, Russia, Slovakia and India, mostly through group partnerships, as well as in Ukraine and Kazakhstan in cooperation with local partners. It is active in more than 100 markets. It employs almost 39,000 people, of which almost 34,000 in the Czech Republic.
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