German luxury carmaker Porsche on Wednesday said it would pay workers a special bonus of up to 9,656 euros ($11,800) each to celebrate a record year, even as the industry grapples with a series of scandals. Porsche said it wanted to reward staff for "the most successful year in the company's history" after it delivered a record 246,000 vehicles in 2017, boosting revenues by five percent to 23.5 billion euros.
The payout will consist of a gross bonus of 8,600 euros plus a 700-euro contribution to staff pension schemes, Porsche said. On top of that, workers will receive a one-off payout of 356 euros to mark the 70th anniversary of the Porsche 356 sports car. Some 23,000 of the nearly 30,000 people it employed by the end of last year would be eligible for the bonuses, the company said in a statement.
"Porsche employees deserve every cent of the bonus," said Uwe Hueck, head of the council that represents Porsche workers. "These outstanding results were not handed to us on a plate - they were achieved with a lot of hard work." The bonus bonanza comes even though the German auto industry has been dogged by controversy ever since Porsche's parent company Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to installing software in millions of diesel cars to cheat pollution tests - including in Porsche models.
Suspicions of emissions cheating have since spread to other carmakers, shattering diesel's image as a clean engine and prompting several smog-clogged German cities to mull diesel driving bans. The scandal deepened earlier this year when it was revealed that a research body funded by Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler commissioned tests that measured the effects of diesel exhaust fumes on monkeys. Despite the damaging headlines, German carmakers enjoyed a stellar year in 2017.
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