Employees

Slight Decrease in Workforce

WACKER’s workforce decreased by 2.6 percent in 2020. German sites accounted for 70.7 percent of WACKER’s employees and international sites for 29.3 percent.

To mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, WACKER introduced short-time work in several production-related and administrative units in Germany in the second quarter of the reporting year. At certain times between April and December 2020, almost 2,000 employees were working reduced hours at the Munich, Burghausen, Stetten and Nünchritz sites.

In October 2020, as part of WACKER’s Shape the Future efficiency program, the company and employee representatives reached an agreement on the framework for the planned job cuts. By the end of 2022, some 1,200 jobs are to be eliminated groupwide in administrative units and in the non-operational functions of the business divisions. Around 1,000 of the job cuts are planned for Germany. The reduction in Germany is to be implemented solely through voluntary and socially responsible measures, such as phased early retirement arrangements and severance agreements. Forced layoffs are explicitly excluded in Germany under this project.

As a manufacturing company, WACKER has a large contingent of industrial workers (47.9 percent), roughly one-eighth (12.1 percent) of whom are women.

At €1,329.4 million, personnel expenses were higher versus the previous year (2019: €1,253.8 million).

They included outlays for social benefits and the company pension plan totaling €288.7 million (2019: €263.2 million). As stipulated in the collective-bargaining agreement reached between the IG BCE labor union and chemical employers in November 2019, the standard pay scale in 2020 rose by the agreed one-off payment for the first six months of the year and by the first stage of the scale increase, which took effect on July 1, 2020.

A WACKER company pension is an important compensation component. It is provided at most of our German and international sites. In Germany, WACKER employees receive a pension through Wacker Chemie AG’s pension fund (Pensionskasse der Wacker Chemie VVaG). Employees can supplement their company pensions by making their own additional contributions. As provided for in collective bargaining agreements, WACKER supports employees’ supplementary contributions. Employees in Germany also receive an additional supplementary pension for that portion of their salary that exceeds the pension insurance contribution assessment ceiling. The fund has around 17,800 members and provides pension payments to some 8,800 retirees. The average pension paid in the reporting period was around €675 per month. WACKER pays in up to four times an employee’s annual pension contributions, with the exact amount being determined by the type of agreement. Given prevailing low interest rates, we made a special payment of €73.4 million to WACKER’s pension fund to ensure sufficient cover for the pension obligations. WACKER is working hard to reform its company pension system with a view to reducing the burden on its earnings, net assets and financial position.