The advance on the December salary should have been paid a few days after the bankruptcy declaration, and in any case before Christmas – now nothing comes of it! KTM’s failure to keep its promise to its employees caused fear and anger. Andreas Stangl, chairman of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor, does not skimp on criticism – especially of KTM owner Stefan Pierer.
“There is simply no handshake quality anymore,” said Andreas Stangl on Friday morning, when the President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor revealed in the same breath: the bankrupt motorcycle manufacturer KTM is not keeping its promise and is unable to make advance payments on December salaries due to a lack of liquidity and wages are not transferred.
250 employees have already been laid off
This news was a devastating blow to the thousands of employees in Mattighofen, Munderfing and Schalchen, 250 of whom have already been laid off. What’s next? Transfers through the insolvency fund, which covers November wages and most of the Christmas bonus, will not flow out until January. KTM wants to transfer the December wages for employees – as usual – at the end of the month, and the December wages for employees in mid-January.
“We don’t like being lied to”
Andreas Stangl’s anger has not disappeared even days after the broken promise became known. “You promise something and don’t keep it,” Stangl hisses. And further: “If I can’t promise something, then I won’t say it. People all expected to get their money. We don’t like being lied to.”
“management failure”
No November salary, virtually no Christmas bonus and no advance payment for December – what does that mean for KTM employees’ Christmas? “People are now unloading their relatives because they don’t know how they are going to finance the meal,” says Stangl, who speaks in this context about “the responsibility of a pier man” and tells the owner of the motorcycle manufacturer: “We don’t talk about it anymore management errors, but about management errors. And we are not talking about a KTM bankruptcy, but a KTM scandal.
Criticism not only because of dividend payments
The criticism of Stefan Pierer, who is considered one of the richest Austrians, remains silent – and not only because of the dividend payments that have taken place in recent years. What Stangl expects from the KTM owner? “Pierer should use his money to pay the employees. He should put his money in an envelope and drive up to everyone and give them the money so they can buy Christmas dinner.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
