According to a recent report from ORF Salzburg, 90 of the 440 employees have been terminated. The union had hoped that the number of people losing their jobs would be significantly lower.
The bad news came at a works meeting on Wednesday followingnoon for Windhager’s 90 employees. “You will no longer have a job from March 1st,” said Daniel Mühlberger from the producing union (PRO GE) to ORF. Both Mühlberger and the new Windhager owner have not yet been available for comment.
“It’s a shock for us”
“It’s a shock for us – we didn’t expect such a high loss,” Mühlberger regretted. To date, it has always been said that they want to continue with the entire workforce. The trade unionist said that we knew that there would be adjustments here and there.
Those employees who can stay at Windhager will apparently receive new employment contracts, some with new content: “We are in the process of looking at the employment contracts in detail. We know that parts of the wage structures such as bonuses will be restructured differently in the future “Employers are also demanding more hours from their existing, future workforce,” said Mühlberger.
Takeover already approved
The takeover has already been approved by the competition authority. From March 1st, the business operations of the sales and service company “Windhager Zentralheiz GmbH” will be transferred to “BHT – Best Heating Technology – GmbH”, and that of the production and technology company will be transferred from “Windhager Zentralheiz Technik GmbH” to “HIDU GmbH” . The Windhager brand name will be retained.
BHT and HIDU are wholly owned subsidiaries of BHT Holding GmbH, which in turn is owned by FIBA Beteiligungs- und Anlagen GmbH. The latter is also the majority owner of the BWT Group, which has been active in the water treatment business for decades. BWT stands for Best Water Technology. BWT managing director Andreas Weißenbacher will become the managing director of the two former Windhager companies.
