Porsche to pay workers “special bonus”

Despite ongoing industry scandals, the luxury car manufacturer will reward staff nearly EUR10,000 each

Porsche to pay workers “special bonus”

German luxury car manufacturer Porsche will pay its workers a special bonus of up to EUR9,656 each despite ongoing industry scandals.

Porsche announced the move last week and said it wanted to reward staff for “the most successful year in the company’s history”. The company’s revenues had gone up 5% due to a record delivery of vehicles in 2017.

Each employee based in Germany will receive a gross bonus of EUR8,600 plus a EUR700 contribution to staff pension schemes. Additionally, workers will receive a one-off payout of EUR356 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Porsche 356 sports car.

About 23,000 of the 30,000 staff are eligible for the payouts, Porsche said in a statement.

“Porsche employees deserve ever cent of the bonus,” said Uwe Hueck, head of the council representing the firm’s workers. “These outstanding results were not handed to us on a plate – they were achieved with a lot of hard work.”

The German auto industry has been marked by an emissions cheating scandal ever since Porsche’s parent company Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating pollution tests.

The scandal has since spread to other car manufacturers. However, carmakers continued to perform well in 2017, reported Channel NewsAsia.