Pamplona/Landaben, 25 August 2026 — Volkswagen Navarra will introduce an additional weekend shift at its Landaben plant on 1 January 2027 and plans to hire around 1,000 temporary workers. The union UGT said this after a meeting of the Comisión Sindical de Seguimiento on Tuesday. The agreement provides for a fixed 28-hour working week, paid at the rate of a 40-hour week.
Working hours will be as follows: Fridays from 6.00 to 14.00, Saturdays from 6.00 to 16.00 and Sundays from 20.00 to 6.00. The calendar confirmed alongside the agreement covers 125 working days a year. Employees who voluntarily remain on the weekend shift for at least a year will then return to the weekday shift in their previous area, shift pattern and equivalent category. For employees who temporarily worked in a higher category in 2026 and received the pay difference, consolidation of that category is planned from January 2027.
According to UGT, the introduction of the weekend shift is part of preparations for higher production volumes in 2027. Management and the unions UGT and CCOO have negotiated the terms for voluntary staffing of the weekend rota in recent months. At the same time, an internal application process has opened for interested employees to register.
According to sources involved in the negotiations, the scale of recruitment will depend on final demand. Volkswagen Navarre says that exact staffing plans may be adjusted in line with confirmed group directives. A definitive assessment is expected in the autumn. In Navarra, the increase in staffing is generally seen as a positive boost for employment and the supplier network; business representatives also stress the need for reliable planning data throughout the value chain.
The key details in this announcement — timing, shift pattern, working hours, annual calendar and category arrangements — were confirmed by the UGT union following the meeting of the Comisión Sindical de Seguimiento on 25 August 2026. At the same time, industry reports refer to talks held since the spring between management and employee representatives on capacity options for 2027. Forecasts for the scale and duration of the increase in staffing remain explicitly dependent on market conditions.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).