By Chris Reiter

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Schaeffler Group, strapped with 11 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in debt after its purchase of Continental AG, should only receive funds from the German government under “strict” conditions, including ceding some control to workers, the IG Metall labor union said.

The aid should help save jobs and not the private wealth of company owners Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler and her son Georg, Matthias Jena, a spokesman for IG Metall in Bavaria, Schaeffler’s home state, said in a telephone interview today. Workers should also get a say in running the company, something they don’t currently have, Jena said.

IG Metall, Germany’s largest union, represents 2.3 million workers, including many of Schaeffler’s 66,000 employees. Schaeffler, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, is in talks with the state governments of Bavaria and Lower Saxony about possible aid to help ease its debt burden after buying 90.2 percent of Continental, Europe’s second-largest car-parts maker, a spokesman for the federal government in Berlin said yesterday.

Schaeffler, which makes transmission parts and ball bearings for cars, planes and fishing reels, aims to combine the automotive-parts businesses of the two companies to cut costs.