EThe Volkswagen Group has ambitious plans for its Moia brand in Hamburg. The idea is to have 5000 autonomous shared taxis operating in the city by the end of the decade, which can be booked through an app and controlled remotely. However, this is still a futuristic concept. Currently, drivers are behind the wheel of the gold-black painted minibusses that Moia operates in Hamburg. Around 300 vehicles are on the streets, driven by approximately one thousand employees who work in shifts. The working conditions of these employees have been criticized by the union.
In a press release on Thursday, the IG Metall criticizes „scandalous conditions at Moia“ in both Hamburg and Hanover, where several vehicles are also operating. It raises the question of whether VW tolerates „precarious conditions“ in its own subsidiary. Specifically, it points to the payment, which is far from sufficient to establish a livable existence in expensive cities like Hamburg. The union sees this as a contradiction to the social partnership that is strongly emphasized in the VW Group with its special rights for employee representatives. „Overall, Moia offers the worst working conditions in the entire group,“ says Thilo Reusch from IG Metall.