Volkswagen to Slash Office Jobs by Next Year, Says Report

Like ripples in a pool of sulphur-rich oil, the impact from Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal keeps spreading.

In a cost-cutting measure designed to mitigate the growing financial damage caused by the scandal, Volkswagen is planning to cut 3,000 administration jobs in Germany, according to Reuters.

The source of unofficial claim comes from two contacts inside the company who contacted German news outlet DPA. How and where the positions would be eliminated is unknown, but the report says the jobs would be gone by the end of 2017.

Volkswagen employs about 40,000 workers in various office positions in Germany, and has already announced it will be shedding temporary administrative positions as an efficiency measure. Other measures include a drop in corporate investment and a company-wide efficiency blitz, which the head of Volkswagen’s worker’s union called “unrealistic” earlier this week.

At Tuesday’s meeting between Volkswagen executives and staff, labor boss Bernd Osterloh made it clear he did not want the planned efficiencies to harm the employment of his members.

Volkswagen is currently in triage mode as it tries to save a patient that is having cash bled from it, seemingly from every pore.

The route forward will mean hard choices, and Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller said Tuesday that the financial pain to the company will be “substantial and painful.”

The recalls of 11 million affected diesel cars has yet to be accomplished, and a fix could still be months away.

In addition to widening investigations in Germany, a fraud case starting in France, and looming environmental fines and a roughly $40 billion lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department (in addition to a fraud investigation from that same entity), the automaker learned this week that German insurer Allianz plans to sue.

Reports have stated Allianz will go after Volkswagen this month to recoup money it lost when the company’s share prices nosedived after the scandal became public last September.