Allianz agrees deal with German workers

MUNICH, Germany—Allianz Deutschland A.G., the German operating company of Allianz S.E. group, has finally reached agreement with workers' representatives about its planned reorganization in its home territory.

Under the plans, the Munich-based insurance giant plans to shed 2,479 full-time jobs by the end of 2007 and a further 2,170 by the end of 2008 in addition to the 1,040 full-time positions already shed by the end of October 2006.

Late last year Allianz management and the worker's representatives published what they call a "joint key-points" paper which called for extensive provisions to protect workers' rights.

Under this understanding the company agreed not to make any compulsory redundancies until the end of 2009. Also, in the course of 2009 the works councils and the management agreed to conduct further talks on measures safeguarding employment until 2012. Allianz has now concluded talks with the workers and now says the path has been "cleared" for implementation of its plan.

Gerhard Rupprecht, chief executive officer of Allianz Deutschland A.G. said, "the works council and management have achieved another key milestone of the reorganization."Allianz and the workers have agreed eleven sub-agreements, which together cover more than 1,000 pages of text, and govern the basic conditions for the implementation of the new operating model in the four service territories.

The agreements also contain rules that govern the procedures to be followed for filling positions in the new organization, including detailed provisions on what functions will be transferred to the new operating model at what times, how the centralized and decentralized functions will be organized in the service territories and when and how the position-filling process will be carried out.