Volkswagen Group Ireland’s
headquarters at Liffey Valley. The company is part of a
wider Volkswagen Group proposal that could see a salary
freeze for thousands of employees across Europe
Volkswagen eyes salary freeze for 660,000 workers
VOLKSWAGEN, with Irish head offices at Liffey Valley, plans to freeze salaries for its 660,000 staff worldwide until 2030, the group’s works council stated.
Volkswagen Group Ireland Ltd, headquartered in the Liffey Valley Office Campus on the Fonthill Road, is part of the global Volkswagen Group.
Internal documents from the company revealed that hundreds of thousands of employees are to forgo pay raises until the end of the decade, initially reported by German outlet Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and then subsequently confirmed by the work council.
The records outline the potential pay freeze for global staff under Volkswagen’s internal Group Target Picture restructuring plan.
The works council called the automakers management’s approach “absurd” in reports and noted that it expected strong resistance.
Reuters reported that the German nultinational described the reports as “speculation.”
Tension between workers representatives and Volkswagen has grown in recent months as plans to restructure the company take shape.
Earlier this year, it was reported that the company plans to cut 100,000 jobs worldwide in the biggest overhaul in the company’s history.
It is understood that these cuts would lead to a 15 per cent decrease of the workforce under the Volkswagen brand, while planned investment would also see the same size cut to bring it to around €130bn over the next five years.
The carmaker had previously outlined plans to cut 50,000 roles in Germany, but the reports now look to double that number being carried out across the globe over the next few years, along with the end of production at four plants in Germany.
An agreement had been made in 2024 with unions not to cease production at any German plants until the next decade, but this could change with four plants across the European nation facing a more open future than expected.
In the 2025 annual report, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume noted that new cars have come on the market last year and also in 2026, but stated a decline in market value since 2022.
