Opel suffers absenteeism of around 9 per cent at its Bochum and Russelsheim plants in Germany. The company said it believed that with the new labour agreement 'competitive manufacturing will also continue to be possible in Germany'.
Hubertus Voegele, a spokesman for the Offenburg prosecutor's office, said the companies are the Pen-Tsao shipping company of Hamburg and an Imhausen-Chemie subsidiary, the GFA company in Bochum.
In Bochum, judicial authorities released a statement saying they were concerned Hippenstiel-Imhausen might have been trying to hide evidence needed for the investigation.