Audi announces staff plans for Brussels plant after shutdown

The closure of the Audi production facility in Brussels had been on the cards for a long time: Audi had repeatedly publicly denounced the plant in the Belgian capital, where the Q8 e-tron and its Sportback offshoot, which is particularly popular in China, are currently being built, over the course of the past year. However, demand for the model has declined in China and the successor to the Q8 e-tron is to be built in Mexico. As no other model is to be produced in Brussels, this is the first time that the Volkswagen Group has closed a plant in Europe.

Around 3,000 employees are affected by the closure. In recent months, they had fiercely resisted the closure of the site, for example, setting fire to an Audi logo made of tyres outside the plant entrance and stealing 200 keys from new cars.

Audi has now extended its offer to employees as part of the redundancy programme. This includes a voluntary company bonus in addition to the statutory redundancy pay. The amount of this Audi bonus depends on the individual’s length of service. According to Audi, the company spends more than twice the legally required amount on severance payments for employees. According to a report in the Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad, employees with 30 years of service, for example, will receive a total gross severance payment of between 200,000 and 400,000 euros, depending on their position and salary.

The social plan also includes a number of support programmes that are available to all employees. These include special retirement arrangements for over 60-year-olds (this probably applies to around 200 people), coaching programmes and so-called outplacement services for employees. The latter means that employees are to be placed in new jobs at other companies.

“I am very pleased that, despite difficult negotiations, we were able to reach a fair settlement for the employees in cooperation with the social partners. This result demanded a lot from all negotiating parties until the end. But in the end, everyone focused on the essentials and put the employees at the center of their actions,” says Thomas Bogus, CEO of Audi Brussels.

Audi Board Member for Production Gerd Walker added: “We have a social responsibility for all employees. That is why it was important to us and to me personally that we reach a joint solution with the social partners in Brussels. We have achieved this with the social plan that has now been agreed.”

The plant in Brussels has a long history. It was founded in 1949 as a VW factory, where the VW Beetle, Golf, Passat and Polo, among others, were built over the decades. In 2007, the name of the plant was changed to Audi Brussels and production soon focussed on the Audi A1. After production of the A1 was transferred to Seat in Spain, the site was transformed into a key plant for electric mobility and from 2018 the Audi e-tron was built there, which was later renamed the Audi Q8 e-tron.

In the past, Audi had repeatedly criticised that the location of the Brussels plant hindered expansion and internal logistics – both of which were necessary to operate the site economically. The plant is located directly on a railway line, which is why no expansion areas are actually accessible. In addition, there is no body shop on site, which is why stand-alone production is not possible in Brussels – important body components have to be supplied from other plants.

It was therefore clear that Audi no longer wanted to operate the plant itself. Instead, Audi had been looking for a buyer for the plant until autumn, but then gave up the search at the end of November.

audi-mediacenter.com, tagesschau.de (in German), nieuwsblad.be (in Dutch)