Seat cut more than 11% of its workforce in the last five years. According to the company’s annual reports, last year ended with 13,058 employees on the payroll compared to 14,751 in 2020. The adjustment of nearly 1,700 employees took place within the framework of an agreement between the company and the unions to adapt the workforce to the expected workload. Union sources explained that this plan has not yet been completed and that some more departures will be counted this year. The same sources detailed that the layoffs have been agreed upon and are not traumatic for the employees.
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With that employment adjustment in recent years, Seat faces the new scenario that opens with the implementation of Volkswagen Group’s restructuring plan, which analyzes the possible disappearance of the Seat brand itself in 2029 and the maintenance of the Cupra brand. Seat sources assured in a statement after this possibility became known that the company “has a solid future” and even that “employment may increase in the coming years.”
However, the two main company unions – UGT and CC.OO. – insisted yesterday on a negative impact on employment if the brand disappears within less than three years. The chairman of the works council and general secretary of UGT, Matías Carnero, demanded that the company management explain how the loss of workers will be compensated if the Seat brand disappears and no new platform for an electric vehicle arrives. In a similar vein, the general secretary of the CC.OO. union section, Rafael Guerrero, wondered that if the Seat Ibiza and Seat Arona stop being manufactured at the end of 2029, “what new model or models will we manufacture that year? and why has nothing concrete been communicated yet with only three years ahead?”.
According to Seat’s 2025 report, that year more than 225,000 cars with the Seat brand were assembled at the Martorell factory. That is almost half of the total production. The rest up to 470,000 units were Cupra and Audi. Company sources defended that it has not yet been made public how the workload will be distributed in the coming years in Martorell between the Seat and Cupra brands.
Hereu recalls that the company “has invested 3.3 billion with almost 200 million from the PERTE”
In the possible scenario of the brand’s disappearance, the chairman of Seat’s works council and member of Volkswagen’s supervisory board demanded that the Government enter the board of directors to guarantee the proper use of public aid granted to the Spanish manufacturer. Yesterday, in an intervention in the Congress of Deputies, the Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, expressed confidence about the future of the brand and employment in Martorell, and recalled that the company “has invested 3.3 billion with almost 200 million from the PERTE for the electric vehicle.”
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Regarding the mentioned entry into Seat’s board, the Generalitat ruled it out yesterday through the spokesperson of the Department of Business and Labor, Miquel Sàmper. “It has neither been discussed at the Government level nor debated, nor has it been proposed or studied,” he said in a press meeting, reports Luis Federico Florio. “We have not worked on whether it would be positive or not, we have not talked about it yet,” he clarified. The central government raised last week that the option is not on the table.
Sàmper states about the board entry that “it has neither been discussed at the Government level nor debated”
About the impact of Volkswagen Group’s adjustment plan globally on Seat and especially on its brand, Sàmper assured that “we keep talking with the involved parties. The Government supports Seat continuing, we will see how. The Government of Spain is on the same line and we are working to save these jobs, the economic activity,” he insisted.
The Business official reiterated the importance of maintaining employment and activity. “For us, Seat is one of the most important companies in Catalonia. In terms of employment, it is probably the largest,” he said.
Regarding the aid allocated by the Generalitat to the company for its electrification, “welcome, because they have served to maintain a company with 15,000 workers until today.”
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