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MY GERMAN CAREER

AVIATION

‘Get off your rear end and learn German’

For our latest installment of My German Career, we asked aircraft engineer Matt Fullick about life and work in Gütersloh.

'Get off your rear end and learn German'
Photo: Private

Where are you located and what do you do?

I am a licensed aircraft engineer. I live in Gütersloh, but I work at Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport. I co-run a company performing line maintenance on a fleet of Boeing 737NG, 737Classic and Airbus A320 aircrafts. Our work covers anything from cleaning the pilots’ windows to replacing engines and undercarriages.

What brought you to Germany and how long have you been here?

As with quite a few expats here in Germany, the military, in my case the Royal Air Force, brought me here for the first time back in 1989. I met my German wife of 23 years on a blind date not long after I arrived. I lived here on and off during 12 years serving in the RAF, before moving into civil aviation.

How did you land your job and do you have tips for anyone seeking similar work?

The first thing I did when I arrived back in Germany after some time in the UK was write blind letters to every airline within 200 km. I had no experience in civil aviation, but I got a couple of replies and interview. My first job was with Eurowings maintaining ATR42 and 72 aircraft and BAE146. I worked for them for just short of 5 years and then again via a blind letter got a job with Air Berlin.

My tip for anyone in Germany looking for a job, is don’t tread the same path as everyone else, be a bit different.

Is it important for you to be able to speak German in your position?

Well if you choose to live and work in a foreign country, then as far as I am concerned you should get off your rear end and learn it to a standard that you can communicate with the people you work with in their own tongue.

My own German is not grammatically perfect, a long way from it, but it is my daily working language. I learned with the help of the Volkshochschule, friends and co-workers – and by pushing my pride deep down in my pockets and using what I had learned.

Some of the spoken mistakes I have made have brought crowded rooms to silence, but you can only learn so far in a classroom or with the help of others. Speaking it is the only way.

What are the best and worst parts about working in Germany?

The worst things are the bureaucracy and the tax rates. Without a bit of paper with an official stamp sometimes I think you will not get further than your front door – and the tax levels are high enough to make a grown man cry.

But I am very happy with my lot. Firstly, when you have the opportunity to live in another country, why not? Secondly, in a couple of hours, I can drive to a dozen different countries without the need for a flight or a ferry crossing. I am fairly sure the standard of living I have here could not be mirrored in the UK.

Do you plan on staying?

In a word, yes. I plan to see my days out here. Although my boys are fluent in English and love visiting family and friends in the UK, Germany is their home and I would not pull them away from it. Also I think that after having the freedom of the German Autobahn for so long, I can’t see my drivers license lasting too long in the UK!

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TAX

Norway acts to protect economy from coronavirus impact

Norway's government on Friday unveiled a 6.5bn Norwegian kroner financial package to help keep businesses afloat through the coronavirus pandemic.

Norway acts to protect economy from coronavirus impact
Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Finance Minister John Tore Sanner (centre right, far right) making the announcement on Thursday. Photo: Norwegian Government
The government announced it was suspending fees and taxes for the airline industry, and would pay all but the two first days of the salaries of employees temporarily laid off in a bid to improve companies' liquidity.  
 
Prime Minister Erna Solberg said at a press conference that it was “absolutely impossible to make an estimate” of how much the measures would cost the government. 
 
“It all depends on how long this lasts, and how strong the measures we need to have,” she said.  “We are put to a major test. The number of people infected is increasing rapidly, and it is affecting our everyday lives, our health care system and our economy.” 
 
The package followed a surprise rate cut on Thursday from Norges Bank, the country's central bank, which reduced its key interest rate to 1 percent from 1.5 percent. 
 
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health on Friday reported that there had been 131 new cases of infection int he 24 hours up to midnight on Thursday, bringing the national total to 750. 
 
The country is now ranked second in the world after South Korea in the number of infections per capita according to the Worldometers website, with 165 confirmed infections per million inhabitants. 
 
On Thursday Norway saw its first death from the virus, with an elderly patient dying at a hospital in Oslo. 
 
Finance Minister Jan Tore Sanner said it was fortunate the the Norwegian economy had been in such a good state at the time the virus hit. 
 
“The situation is now affecting many parts of the economy and many industries and companies. Fortunately, the Norwegian economy is fundamentally solid,” he told state broadcaster NRK. “We have a good starting point.”
 
In a press release accompanying the announcement, the government said it would also remove the three-day waiting period between the point at which companies stop paying employees' salaries and the time unemployment benefits begin, to help keep the income of those laid off stable. 
 
It said it would also change corporate tax regulations so that companies that are loss-making can re-allocate their losses towards the previous years’ taxed surplus. It will also change the tax regulations so that owners of loss-making companies can postpone payments of wealth tax. 
 
Sanner told NRK that the government was considering other changes to employment taxes to make it easier for companies.  
 
“Should the economic situation worsen, we will also consider measures to stimulate the economy more generally,” he said. 
 
Sanner would give few concrete details of the other exact measures the government would propose, but he said they would all fall into three categories. 
 
  • Immediate measures to avoid bankruptcies and dismissals.
  • Further concrete measures for industries and companies that are particularly hard hit and for the business community as a whole.
  • Broad measures to maintain activity in the economy if necessary.
 
The measures announced received a relatively lukewarm reception from the crisis-hit aviation and travel industries. 
 
“The measures presented today are still not sufficient given the very special emergency situation in the airline industry,” John Echoff, press officer for the airline SAS, wrote to NRK.
 
“Taken as a whole, this will turn out to be too little as this crisis continues developing,” said Kristin Krohn Devold, chief executive of the Norwegian Hospitality Association. “More needs to come in the days ahead.”
 
“We are very clear that this is not enough to avoid a bankruptcy wave across the entire travel and airline industries. But it is a signal that they are willing to listen.” 
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