No salary advance

KTM promise shattered: the first reactions

Mattighofen's mayor Daniel Lang and trade unionist Wolfgang Gerstmayer (right) are affected by the bad news.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Manfred Fesl (2), Markus Wenzel)

It is bad news just a few days before Christmas, which has hit the employees concerned particularly hard: the advance payment on December salaries promised by KTM has not materialized. "This is devastating," says Mattighofen's mayor Daniel Lang in an initial reaction. The trade unions GPA and PRO-GE are also concerned.

"There is simply no more handshake quality," says Andreas Stangl. The President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor is outraged by the developments at KTM. After the company had promised the more than 3600 affected employees that it would transfer a 90 percent advance on their December salary a few days after the opening of insolvency proceedings, the workforce was then put off this payment until shortly before Christmas.

On Thursday - and thus on the penultimate day of production, which will be shut down until the end of February - the motorcycle manufacturer then informed the employees that the advance would not be paid after all, but that the salary would only be transferred at the end of the month as usual. Apparently there is a lack of liquidity to cover the payments now.

"They are left with nothing"
A blow for the employees, who are already waiting for their November salary and most of their Christmas bonus. "This is devastating," says Mattighofen's mayor Daniel Lang. The head of the town reports on employees who were among the first 250 to be made redundant in December: "They still received 300 euros for the one day in November and their share of the Christmas bonus. They are left with nothing."

"Uncertainty is catastrophic"
Wolfgang Gerstmayer, Managing Director of the GPA trade union in Upper Austria, is audibly annoyed. In the direction of KTM owner Stefan Pierer, he says: "He still wanted to appear as a great savior to his own employees by paying out December salaries, although he had already been unable to pay out November and Christmas bonuses, for which the insolvency compensation fund now has to step in. The uncertainty that the employees are experiencing is catastrophic."

"Like a slap in the face"
"The fact that, contrary to the company's promises, the December salaries will not be paid out before Christmas is like a slap in the face for those affected. They are now paying the price for apparently misguided management decisions," say Reinhold Binder and Barbara Teiber, chairpersons of the PRO-GE and GPA trade unions.

"All parties involved are called upon"
"It is understandable that the current developments around KTM are causing concern and resentment. However, it remains imperative that everything possible is done to enable the company to continue as a going concern. This is a challenge for all parties involved," says Markus Achleitner, Upper Austria's Upper Provincial Councillor for Economic Affairs.