BMW News

BMW could endure a 30 percent slump in sales without posting losses or having to lay off staff thanks to an anti-crisis package agreed between staff and management, Der Spiegel reported on Sunday.

The deal, agreed with employees last month, allows the luxury car maker to scrap shifts, enforce staff holidays during downturns and remove limits to overtime work to build up cushions for possible crises, the magazine said.

"Our agreement with workers (of late September) provides for a whole bunch of flexibilisation measures," a BMW spokesman told Reuters News Agency. "The goal of the plan is to preserve jobs."

Munich-based BMW, due to report third-quarter results on Nov 6, said on Sept 26 that the deal reached with staff representatives to solve a row over lease workers includes steps to adjust production to changes in vehicle demand.

Luxury-car makers BMW, VW's Audi and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz have been weathering the demand crisis in austerity-strapped Europe better than mass-market peers, benefiting from a solid home market and demand for premium cars in China and the U.S.––Paul Duchene