DUESSELDORF--Management and labour leaders at Germany's Thyssenkrupp have agreed on a way forward after the industrial conglomerate announced a fresh restructuring drive that could lead to the loss of 6,000 jobs.
Agreement was reached in talks between management and workers overnight on recognising the need for radical action, whilst ensuring fair treatment of employees at the Essen-based group, both sides said.
CEO Guido Kerkhoff announced the overhaul on Friday, ditching plans to split the business into two and abandoning a European steel merger with India's Tata Steel. The group will adopt a holding structure and plans to list its elevators unit, its most successful business.
The decision, first reported by Reuters, triggered a 28% recovery in Thyssenkrupp shares - their biggest daily gain - as Kerkhoff abandoned a cross-shareholding structuring that had ceased to be financially viable. "Now it is up to shareholders to decide whether Thyssenkrupp steers towards a (viable) future, or towards conflict," said Markus Grolms, deputy head of the Thyssenkrupp works council who represents the IG Metall industrial trade union.
Thyssenkrupp said in a statement the two steering committees of its supervisory board supported the new strategy, including the agreement with labour leaders, and recommended it be approved at a full board meeting on May 21. "The executive board's new strategy is to build a fundamentally new Thyssenkrupp," the company said.
Group companies would be given freer rein to be more entrepreneurial and flexible, it added.
