Autobauer: Mercedes baut nicht nur in Verwaltung und Entwicklung Personal ab – so hoch sind die Abfindungen

Mercedes-Benz is downsizing its workforce through severance programs in various production departments. Intranet documents accessed by the Handelsblatt show that voluntary programs running since early September in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim and Berlin component plants will continue until November. It is known that the automaker aims to cut personnel indirectly, outside of production.

Starting in December, employees in administration and development will receive severance offers again. Mercedes has reactivated its voluntary program, which previously ran between April 2025 and March 2026. However, not everyone within the group is aware that the company has been downsizing personnel using severance programs at its Untertürkheim and Berlin headquarters for years.

Employees receive sums ranging from six-figure amounts. In Untertürkheim, a voluntary program has been running every autumn since 2019, while it was introduced in Berlin in 2022. Both locations are expected to have severance payments every autumn until the end of 2029. Mercedes is cutting personnel costs with the goal of "Next Level Performance."

A cost-cutting program under this name will aim to save expenses in production, materials, and personnel. Since this summer, Mercedes has intensified its cost-cutting efforts in Germany, calling it a "Productivity Offensive." The Swabians are facing poor business in China, US tariffs, and the consequences of management errors. Sales and profits have been declining for years.

Due to a guaranteed employment security in Germany until the end of 2034, the DAX company must offer attractive options for employees to voluntarily terminate their contracts. In the component plants, the company began socially managing the structural change early on. In Untertürkheim, the company manufactures engines, axles, and gearboxes.

In Berlin, gear components are built. Gear components are primarily used in conventional vehicles. Even though Mercedes plans to offer internal combustion engines far into the 2030s, the DAX company will increasingly sell electric cars. By 2028/29, electric cars and hybrids will account for 40 percent of sales, with 25 percent in the third quarter.

Less conventional drive components will be needed. Although battery systems for electric models have been produced in Untertürkheim since 2021, and new axial flow engines in Berlin since this summer for the new AMG sports cars, fewer workers are needed. "The depth and volume of manufacturing conventional drive components will gradually decrease in the coming years," Mercedes writes in the intranet.

"As a result, personnel surpluses are already emerging in some functions." Untertürkheim is particularly dependent on the internal combustion engine. By 2025, the plant will have 12,500 employees, which is 3,500 or 22 percent fewer than in 2021. In Berlin, the number of employees fell from 1,800 in 2024 to 1,800 in 2025. Most of these positions will not be terminated through the severance program but will retire due to age.

Birth rates among the post-war generations, the baby boomers, are falling. In the coming decade, 20 percent of the Mercedes workforce will retire due to age. Severance payments for employees up to the age of 56 in Untertürkheim and Berlin are high, according to the Handelsblatt. Employees aged 40 to 56 receive a severance contract based on their age, with a 50-year-old receiving a base payment of 22,500 euros plus an additional 40 times their gross monthly salary.

As the current severance programs in Untertürkheim and Berlin are considered a "Turboprogramm," there is an additional 10 percent surcharge, with at least 17,500 euros. The Turboprémie also includes six months' salary. In Berlin, the Turboprémie will be paid for the last time this year. Untertürkheim employees receive an additional 10,000 euros, compensating for the lack of career counseling for professional reorientation.

Otherwise, the same conditions apply at both locations. Mercedes declined to comment on specific conditions upon request. A trainee earning 3,296 euros per month in the auto industry in Baden-Württemberg under IG-Metall tariff conditions could see their severance payment in Untertürkheim reach around 224,000 euros.