- VW fired 548 employees in early 2025, with misconduct dismissals rapidly rising.
- Rising staff issues are costing Volkswagen nearly €1 billion each year.
- Company plans to increase production of the Golf, Tiguan, and Tayron this year.
Volkswagen has been navigating a turbulent year of slowing demand, production pauses, and looming job cuts, and now the company is turning its attention inward. Employees who step out of line may find themselves quickly out of work, joining a steadily growing list of dismissed staff.
Read: VW Didn’t Fire Them But Tens Of Thousands Of Workers Are Still Walking Away
According to its latest internal discipline report, published every six months, Volkswagen terminated 548 employees in the first half of 2025 for violating company rules. Over the same period, 2,079 staff received formal warnings, and management expects the number of dismissals over misconduct to climb further before the year is out.
Going AWOL Has Consequences
Unexcused absences appears to stand out as the main reason for disciplinary action. Bild reports that the VW core brand alone has already dismissed more than 300 employees this year across its six key German sites in Wolfsburg, Braunschweig, Emden, Hanover, Salzgitter, and Kassel. That figure already matches the total for all of last year, highlighting how quickly dismissals have accelerated in recent months.
While speaking at an event last year, VW brand boss Thomas Schafer said that absenteeism cost the brand roughly €1 billion ($1.17 billion) annually. Employees were recently warned through VW’s intranet system that repeated absences without a valid reason could lead to immediate dismissal.
It’s worth noting that the company has more than 560,000 global employees, so the sackings only account for a tiny proportion of its workforce. However, it plans significant cuts in the coming years and will eliminate 35,000 jobs in Germany alone by 2030.
Production Cuts
These firings come just as a drop in demand has prompted the carmaker to make several manufacturing changes. As we recently reported, production at several VW sites will be halted this month. This will include work at the Zwickau and Dresden sites, both of which will be taken offline for a week starting October 6.
Adding Up To Existing Trouble
And that’s not all. Manager Magazin reports that production at the Osnabrück site will be halted for a week this month and will be closed at least one day every week until the end of the year. Both the Zwickau and Dresden sites handle production of several EVs, including the ID.4 and ID.7, while the Osnabrück facility handles production of the T-Roc Cabriolet, which is expected to be axed in 2026.
If there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud is the fact that VW is experiencing strong demand for the Golf, Tiguan, and Tayron and will add special shifts to its Wolfsburg plant to increase production through the end of the year.
