BMW to cut work hours, pay of highly-qualified employees

German carmaker BMW is planning to reduce the salaries of its highly qualified employees by 10,000-14,000 euros each year, the German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche reported on Friday.

BMW is also seeking to reduce the working time of its skilled workforce from 40 to 35 hours a week, a measure that would save around 100 million euros, WirtschaftsWoche said.

In the past, the German carmaker let employees with sought-after qualifications work 40 hours instead of 35 hours a week to avoid having to train new people and to be able to deploy proven specialists for longer time.

"I will ensure that highly qualified workers can continue to work 40 hours," Manfred Schoch, head of the workers' council, told WirtschaftsWoche.

The reduction of working time would affect around one-third of the company's 17,000 employees.

According to WirtschaftsWoche, BMW was negotiating with the workers' council on a package of several measures to save 12 billion euros by 2022.