500 still have to go

AMS boss empathizes with anxious KTM employees

"Not knowing whether I am now one of the 500 who still have to leave - that must be madness," says Iris Schmidt, Managing Director of AMS Upper Austria.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Wenzel, Manfred Fesl/APA/picturedesk.com)

250 employees have already been informed that they will have to leave, and a further 500 employees will be laid off in the course of the insolvency proceedings at KTM - these figures were confirmed after the round table at the state of Upper Austria. On Friday, the AMS arrived with a large contingent of employees - even with help from Salzburg.

"We are gearing up, pooling our resources, asking which of the part-time employees can increase their hours and how much overtime can be worked. We are putting what is not so important on the back burner" - with these words, Iris Schmidt reacted to the impending staff cuts at motorcycle manufacturer KTM immediately after the insolvency was announced by focusing on how a strong team can now be present in the Innviertel region.

On Monday, a total of 250 redundancies were announced at the three companies affected by the restructuring process - KTM AG, KTM Components GmbH and KTM Forschungs & Entwicklungs GmbH. Four days later, on Friday, a works meeting was held directly at the Mattighofen headquarters by insolvency experts from the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor and the Upper Austrian Public Employment Service.

Insolvency compensation fund also pays for separation claims
The first step was to clarify the rights and claims in the event of termination of the employment relationship in insolvency proceedings, which also involved signing the powers of attorney that are forwarded to the Insolvency Remuneration Fund. This is because the fund also takes over claims that become due when employers and employees separate, such as severance payments.

Together, we have mapped out the other options, what securing a livelihood means and how much money that means.

Iris Schmidt, Geschäftsführerin des AMS OÖ, über den ersten 

"The employees of the Chamber of Labor are the specialists when it comes to what the next steps are," says Iris Schmidt, who had a team of more than ten employees on site at KTM on Friday to support the people affected by the job loss as a first step - from registering them for job searches to discussing what future options the respective people have and what qualification options are available if there is no suitable job.

AMS Salzburg helps out
Remarkably, it was not only AMS employees from Linz who helped the regional team at the Braunau employment service office, but also colleagues from Salzburg. "There are also employees at KTM who commute to the Innviertel from Salzburg," says Schmidt. And the AMS Upper Austria is not only receiving help from Salzburg, she reveals: "We also already have offers of support from Lower Austria and Tyrol."

Another 500 employees still have to go
In addition to the 250 people who have already been made redundant at KTM, a further 500 will have to go as part of the restructuring process - this was underlined once again on Thursday at the round table hosted by Markus Achleitner, Upper Austrian Councillor for Economic Affairs. Schmidt is audibly concerned by this development: "I keep thinking about them. Of the 3600 employees, 250 know that they have to go. And now the others are left behind, none of whom know whether they are one of these 500 or not. I can't imagine how they feel now, but it must be madness."