The airline Austrian Airlines, which is claiming government support in the three-digit million range and loan guarantees from the Republic of Austria, is said to have distributed around 2,9 million euros to management in the middle of the corona crisis. Although the company emphasizes that it was back payments for 2019, the Vida union strongly criticizes the process.

 “It seems to me that Finance Minister Blümel is crying over spilled milk. After all, something like this hasn't just happened today. Appeals to companies and lip service are therefore not enough. What is finally needed are clear legal rules that when corporations are supported with tax money and savings are made for employees, no additional bonuses are allowed to flow to managers who are already well-paid, ”said Vida Chairman Roman Hebenstreit. “And that does not only apply to the current AUA event, but must also apply to the managers of all corporations. Hard-working and tax-paying people always have to put up with cuts through unemployment or short-time working as a result of financial and economic crises or, as is now the case with the Corona crisis. As taxpayers, you also have to absorb the losses of companies. Your understanding of bonus payments to managers should therefore be limited ”.

The trade unionist emphasizes that the bonus regulation is based on benefits from the previous year and the corona crisis was not yet foreseeable at this point, but it remains to be questioned whether such management payments are justified, especially since consumers are waiting for their ticket costs to be reimbursed the employees have to accept reduced salaries, so Hebenstreit.

"The hard-working taxpayers can only wave their money back as it flies away with the AUA's top managers," explains the unionist, who calls for a ban on bonus payments. “Otherwise the government will have to put up with criticism that it finances the prosperity of top managers who are already well-off financially and who only want to save on others but not on themselves, at the expense of taxpayers and the workforce”.

In this context, the Vida trade unionist recalls the year 2009. Even then, in a survey of top manager fees in Austria, AK criticized the fact that, despite losses, job cuts and short-time work in the wake of the financial and economic crisis, the bonuses for board members continued had risen. The highest rate of increase in top manager fees was in 2008 with a plus of 126 percent to an average of 948.000 euros per person at Austrian Airlines (AUA) - despite the record loss of 430 million euros in the 2008 financial year.

“The government and AUA must now finally draw the conclusions from the mistakes of the past. Anything else would be a continuation of the ridicule of taxpayers and employees, ”said Hebenstreit.