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SAAB CASH CRISIS

SAAB

Saab staff set to receive no pay

White-collar staff at cash-strapped Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile will not receive their salaries due on Wednesday, the firm has confirmed in a statement.

Saab staff set to receive no pay

The firm explained that the reason for missed payment is that some of the payments promised from investors has not been received.

Saab is now is discussions with various stakeholders to try to find a short term solution in order for the wages to be paid out.

Wages due to all workers affiliated with the Swedish Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall) have however been paid out as normal.

July is the second consecutive month that Saab has had problems meeting salary payments. Last month it affected IF Metall members who were made to wait for their pay packet.

The problem was eventually solved when a loan from the Gemini fund was completed and the money could be deposited into employee accounts.

Earlier this afternoon Anette Hellgren, president of Unionen representing salaried employees in the private sector, said that she had heard nothing about the cashflow problems, but that she received a call later in the day.

“The company rang. They said that there had been a delay and that the money should be paid out as soon as possible,” Anette Hellgren said to news agency TT.

Members of Unionen were also made to wait for their salaries in June, which were ultimately paid two days late. The prior problems mean that the organisation is prepared to make up the shortfall.

“We have everything ready so that Unionen can offer loans to those affected in order to survive,” said Hellgren.

The amount available is equivalent to what would otherwise have been paid out through the wage guarantee if the company had gone bankrupt.

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BANKRUPTCY

Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group

Nearly half of Switzerland's restaurants and hotels risk bankruptcy within months failing financial support to weather devastating Covid-19 measures, the sector's employer group warned Sunday.

Half of Swiss hotels, restaurants risk bankruptcy: employer group
Closed restaurants face bankruptcy in Switzerland. Photo by AFP

The Swiss government is expected this week to extend the closure of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities across the country until the end of February to control stubbornly high coronavirus case and death numbers.

But industry federation GastroSuisse warned in a statement that if done  without providing significant financial support, around half of businesses in the restauration and hospitality sector could go belly-up by the end of March.

The group polled around 4,000 restaurant and hotel owners, and determined that 98 percent of them already are in urgent need of financial support.

“The very existence of many of them is threatened,” GastroSuisse president Casimir Platzer said in the statement.

While restaurants and other businesses quickly received financial support when Switzerland went into partial lockdown during the initial wave of infections, GastroSuisse has complained that support during subsequent sporadic closures has lagged.

Before the crisis, more than 80 percent of Swiss restaurants and hotels were in a good or very good position of liquidity, the study showed.

But that situation quickly deteriorated.

In October, as a second wave of infections picked up steam, the organisation cautioned that 100,000 jobs were at risk.

And during the final two months of 2020, nearly 60 percent of restaurant and hotel establishments were forced to conduct layoffs for a second time, it said.

Without government intervention, a third wave of layoffs is looming, Platzer warned.

The latest closures were to be lifted on January 22, but the government said last week it wanted to extend the deadline for a further five weeks.

GastroSuisse said the final announcement, due Wednesday, needed to be
accompanied by “immediate and uncomplicated” financial support to the sector
to avoid “disaster”.

USAM, a union that represents small and medium-sized businesses in Switzerland, called Sunday for the government not to prolong or tighten measures, warning it was an “existential question” for many of its members.

Switzerland, a country of 8.6 million people, is currently registering around 4,000 Covid-19 cases a day and had by Friday seen nearly 476,000 cases and 7,545 deaths since the start of the pandemic. 

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