Employment Law2026-07-29

BMW Job Cuts: Should You Accept the Severance Offer or Not?

BMW is cutting jobs through a voluntary severance programme. What is confirmed, how long you may take to decide, and what matters before you sign.

BMW is cutting jobs, and it is doing so through a voluntary severance programme. If you work in administration or development, you may well find an offer on your desk in the coming months. Then the question is: accept it or not? This is not a decision to take under time pressure or without having the offer checked. Once you have signed a termination agreement, you can hardly undo it.

How I can help you

I review the specific severance offer from your employer and give you a realistic assessment of it.
I work through with you whether, and how, a benefit suspension period (Sperrzeit) on your unemployment benefit might arise.
I go back and negotiate wherever there is still room on the amount and the terms.
I check whether partial early retirement (Altersteilzeit) would be the better alternative to leaving.
I make sure that garden leave, remaining holiday, your reference and the tax questions are settled cleanly.

What is known so far (as of 23 September 2026)

I separate here what BMW itself has published, what the press reports and what remains open.

From BMW itself: the BMW Group press release of 30 July 2026 reports an agreement with the works council on adjusting staff structures, including a voluntary severance programme. It gives no figures and no deadlines.

From the press:

Around 8,000 jobs are to go worldwide, through natural attrition and the voluntary severance programme in Germany. The programme is to run from October 2026 to the end of 2027 and to be open to employees in Germany outside direct production. This is what the German Press Agency (dpa) reported on 29 July 2026, citing company sources (via autohaus.de). Handelsblatt gave the figure of 8,000 on the same day, also from company sources.
At the half-year mark, a good 84,000 of BMW’s just under 154,000 employees worked in Germany (dpa, 29 July 2026).
In Germany, BMW wants to manage “as far as possible” without redundancies on operational grounds (hallo-muenchen.de, 31 July 2026). “As far as possible” is not a commitment; I have not found a binding exclusion of such redundancies in any source.

Open or contradictory:

How many employees will receive an offer is not settled. According to the Münchner Merkur, up to 50,000 are in principle eligible (as quoted by t-online, 29 July 2026); other reports speak of “tens of thousands” of office staff.
BMW has not published a severance formula. The figure of “up to 250,000 euros” that is doing the rounds comes from sample calculations by hallo-muenchen.de of 31 July 2026. The site itself says this is not the confirmed BMW formula.
BMW has not published whether it also offers partial early retirement to employees close to retirement as part of the programme.

Voluntary means you don’t have to sign

A voluntary severance programme is an offer, not a dismissal. You are under no obligation. As long as BMW wants to reach its target through voluntary departures, you are not being backed into a corner. That is your bargaining position: your employer wants you to leave and is willing to pay for it. So you do not sign the first piece of paper put in front of you; you check calmly whether the amount is right and the terms fit. A termination agreement must also be in writing (§ 623 of the German Civil Code, Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch). Verbal assurances made in the HR meeting do not count.

How long may I take to decide?

German law does not prescribe a cooling-off period for termination agreements. The deadline your employer sets is the deadline of its offer (§ 148 BGB). Once it has passed, the offer lapses (§ 146 BGB). The employer can renew it at any time, however, and with a programme that runs in fixed windows it regularly does. So the deadline binds the employer, not you.

Once you sign, you are bound. There is no right of withdrawal as there is for doorstep sales; the Federal Labour Court has decided this (BAG, judgment of 7 February 2019, 6 AZR 75/18). The same judgment established the requirement of fair negotiation: a termination agreement is invalid if the employer creates or exploits a situation of pressure that makes a free decision considerably more difficult. That is the exception, not the rule. If the employer demands an immediate signature and allows no time to think it over, that alone does not breach the requirement (BAG, judgment of 24 February 2022, 6 AZR 333/21).

For a programme with deadlines of weeks or months, this means: there is enough time to have the agreement checked, and you should use it. If you are pressed to sign on the spot in the meeting, say “I’ll take the draft with me” and don’t let anyone talk you out of it.

The biggest trap: the benefit suspension period on your unemployment benefit

The costliest mistake with a termination agreement is the benefit suspension period (Sperrzeit). If you bring your employment to an end yourself, even by mutual consent and in return for severance, you risk a suspension period of up to twelve weeks under § 159 of Book III of the German Social Code (Sozialgesetzbuch III). During this time your unemployment benefit is suspended, and the overall period for which you can claim it is shortened. A generous severance payment is of little use if the benefit you lose eats it up again. Whether the suspension period can be avoided in your case depends on exactly how the agreement is structured, and that needs to be clarified before you sign. I explain the mechanics in the article Termination agreements and the benefit suspension period.

What makes a good severance payment

With a voluntary programme you have no entitlement to a particular level of severance. The figures come from the social compensation plan (Sozialplan) or from the negotiation. As a rough guide, the widely used rule of thumb is half a month’s gross salary for each year of service; it is not law but a matter for negotiation (more on this under How much severance can you expect). The range runs from zero to a full month’s salary per year; the zero is there because an employer with a sound ground for dismissal does not have to pay anything. Job cuts on this scale regularly sit on top of a social compensation plan: in the case of larger operational changes, the employer and the works council negotiate a reconciliation of interests and a social compensation plan under §§ 111, 112 of the Works Constitution Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz). Its rules set the framework for your offer.

Beyond the headline figure, it is worth looking at the terms: paid garden leave until you leave, payment in lieu of remaining holiday, a favourable and detailed reference, and the tax. A severance payment can be taxed at a reduced rate under the one-fifth rule (§ 34 of the Income Tax Act, Einkommensteuergesetz). You should work this through before signing, as it can make a difference of several thousand euros.

Partial early retirement as an alternative

For those close to retirement, partial early retirement can be more favourable than leaving with a severance payment, if the employer offers it. Whether BMW does so as part of the programme has not been published; ask about it in your HR meeting. The transition into retirement is cushioned, and the suspension period of a termination agreement does not apply. Which option is better for you can only be answered with your own figures; neither route is simply “the better one”.

How I go about it for you

I review your offer, work through the consequences for the suspension period and tax, and tell you frankly whether I consider the amount fair and where I would negotiate. The initial assessment is free of charge; costs only arise once you instruct me. Legal expenses insurance often covers the cost of legal advice. Above all, one thing matters: do not sign under pressure in the HR meeting. Take the offer with you, look at it in your own time and seek advice.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to accept the severance offer?

No. A voluntary programme is an offer, and you can decline it. According to the reports, BMW wants to manage as far as possible without redundancies on operational grounds. You can also use the offer as a basis for negotiation.

Will the severance trigger a benefit suspension period on my unemployment benefit?

It may. If you bring your employment to an end yourself, you risk a suspension period (Sperrzeit) of up to twelve weeks under § 159 of Book III of the German Social Code (Sozialgesetzbuch III). Whether it can be avoided depends on how the agreement is structured, and this should be checked beforehand.

How large will the severance be?

The law does not prescribe a fixed amount, and BMW has not published a formula. As a guide, the usual figure is half a month’s gross salary for each year of service, within a range from zero to a full month’s salary per year; what counts is the social compensation plan and your negotiation.

How long do I have to decide?

The law does not prescribe a cooling-off period. The deadline in the offer binds the employer, not you; once it has passed, the employer can renew the offer. After you sign, however, there is no right of withdrawal (BAG, judgment of 7 February 2019, 6 AZR 75/18). So take the draft with you and have it checked before you sign.

This article provides general information and is no substitute for legal advice in an individual case. Last updated: 2026-09-23.

Christian Czirnich, Rechtsanwalt (attorney at law), Kirchseeon near Munich

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