BMW has entered a deal with its works council to reduce temporary workers by half from 12,000 workers currently down to about 6,000, according to a report from the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche. BMW would then hire thousands of permanent staff, many of whom will come from the current group of temporary staff. Citing various sources, the magazine reported that from having temporary workers accounting for 17% in its work force, the share would drop to about 8-10%. A BMW spokesman said that the talks over a new employment contract have yet to end but have made a lot of progress. He added that an agreement is likely to be entered in the upcoming weeks. In the past few years, automakers as well as other manufacturers in Germany have depended heavily on temporary and short-term contract workers to balance out the fluctuations in output and demand.
