Bonuses are back for Opel managers

Top managers at the beleaguered carmaker Opel will once again be eligible for bonuses, sparking anger from company workers facing layoffs, the head of the staff association said Saturday.

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After special incentive payments such as bonuses were scrapped last year because of the financial crisis – which almost forced parent company General Motors to offload its European subsidiary Opel – bonuses are again back on the cards this year, staff association head Klaus Franz said.

The 10 percent cut in pay for the top earners in the company was also being scrapped this year, he said.

“This is absolutely the wrong time,” Franz said of the demand by management that the company’s workforce share €265 million in special payments as part of the company’s restructuring.

The top managers had “to set a good example,” he said.

General Motors is currently seeking €2.7 billion in credit guarantees from the European countries where Opel has a presence and is expected soon to present to the German government its restructuring plan.

A spokesman for Opel refused to comment.

GM has said it would lay off about 8,300 of the 48,000 workers it employs in Europe.

The firm has 25,000 workers in Germany, about half of whom have gone onto shorter working hours because of slumping sales.