The employees were promised that they would receive an advance on their December salaries before Christmas, but KTM has not kept this promise. Could there still be a ‘Christmas miracle’ for the workforce thanks to a transfer from the insolvency fund? Unfortunately none.
Early this week, the approximately 1,500 employees of the furniture retailer kikaLeiner, which has gone bankrupt, will receive their outstanding November salaries and the pro-rata Christmas bonus, which will at least bring some relief in terms of the account balance so recently despite the uncertain job prospects for Christmas.
However, KTM employees cannot expect a similar gift before December 24. Because: on the one hand, the motorcycle manufacturer filed for bankruptcy two weeks later than kikaLeiner, and with more than 3,600 employees it is a completely different dimension than the bankruptcy of the trading company.
The fact is: the bankruptcy compensation fund is available, but can only take action and transfer the money to the KTM employees after the calculations of the Chamber of Labor and the blessing of the restructuring administrators Peter Vogl, Robert Tremel and Franz Mitterbauer, as well as confirmation by the person responsible court.
Powers of attorney issued during company meetings
At the company meetings in the days immediately following the opening of the three insolvency proceedings, the first important steps for the transfers were taken: the Insolvency Law Department of the Upper Austrian Labor Chamber came together to the company meetings at KTM to obtain the powers of attorney necessary for the filing and, ideally, pick it up immediately. The employee data was then checked and supplemented if necessary. But: The wage data that the motorcycle manufacturer must submit has been long overdue.
The Chamber of Labor had to intervene again on Monday
“We were actually promised them for early last week, and then for Friday. “But they weren’t there on Monday morning either, so we intervened again,” says Andreas Stangl, chairman of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor, irritated. They were then shipped on Monday afternoon. “The colleagues have just started processing the data,” revealed Karoline Neumüller, head of the insolvency law department of the Upper Austrian Labor Chamber, shortly before 4 p.m.
One thing is clear: there will certainly be no “Christmas miracle” from the insolvency fund. Neumüller had few illusions from the start. “If everything goes smoothly, we hope that the insolvency fund can pay out by the end of January,” she said.
There is 400 million euros in the pot
The bankruptcy compensation fund has emphasized in recent days that they expect applications from KTM employees this week at the earliest. We are well prepared and will process this as quickly as possible. Employees affected by bankruptcies are well protected when it comes to outstanding claims. It is said that the bankruptcy compensation fund is currently sufficiently endowed with approximately 400 million euros.
The company had promised an advance
At KTM, employees had hoped and trusted that the company would keep its promise and transfer a salary and wage advance for December before Christmas. On Thursday, staff were told that there was no liquidity available for this. Bad news a few days before Christmas.
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.
