Nokia to pay German state ?1.3 million to settle Bochum dispute

Germany wanted $6.2 million in research subsidies back from Nokia, and in addition to the "tens of millions" that the company has already relinquished after the highly-disputed Bochum plant closing, it'll be coughing up another €1.3 million ($2.04 million) to hopefully close the door on the matter. Said payment will be addressed to North Rhine-Westphalia, which was quite angry after the handset maker decided to hack 2,300 jobs from Germany and relocate operations to Romania for "lower labor costs." The sum here is in addition to the €20 million "Growth for Bochum" foundation that the outfit started, but apparently that show of goodwill didn't really change the hearts of those already bitter.

[Via PhoneScoop, image courtesy of Reuters]

[tekdroid @ Jul 28th 2008 10:37AM]

2 million USD?
I hear they save that much in Romania in a couple weeks :p

[rock99rock @ Jul 28th 2008 10:38AM]

Hopefully, the employees with lost jobs will get a piece of that pie.

I like pie.

[From My Cube @ Jul 28th 2008 10:40AM]

so clever! I bet you start a trend

[Oinquer @ Jul 28th 2008 10:42AM]

..probably nokia paid the stated in each contract to the employees and this money goes to the already deep pockets from government or something

[Shnokia @ Jul 28th 2008 11:02AM]

Unbelievable how Nokia gets away with it..

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 28th 2008 6:05PM]

Had you ever seen what "production hall" in Germany is, then you would understand that Nokia would pay anything to get out of Germany.

There is no other country where people do not work, do not want to work, can say it openly and remain employed simply because companies can't fire them. Most here openly wait for retirement and do nothing whole day in office but drink free coffee.

N.B. I'm working in Germany for past 6 years. So this is "first hand" experience.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 28th 2008 6:10PM]

"Most here" should be read as "Many here."

There are actually good working people here. But in my experience they can be easily divided into three groups: (1) foreigners (2) going to leave Germany soon (3) come from post-soviet East Germany.

In West, the generation which rebuild the Germany from ruins after war now more or less wholly retired. And they are real hard workers. New generation is used too much to over-generous social benefit system.

[Amazed @ Jul 28th 2008 11:29AM]

It's quite interesting that Nokia is forced to pay such a high amount of money, because when German phonemaker Siemens moved their whole production to low-cost contries few years ago(due to new owners from South-East Asia), there weren't any scandals about it there.

[phanbouy @ Jul 28th 2008 11:54AM]

My guess is that Siemens hadn't gotten $6.2 million in subsidies.

[Shyam D @ Jul 28th 2008 11:40AM]

Anyone else think this is extremely stupid? They aren't doing anything anti-competitive, anti-trust, or anti-union. They are merely doing what a business does, which is to cut costs for their bottom line. Its no wonder new business go to countries like India and China. No BS laws saying you have to pay X years worth of salary even though you're not even getting any work out of them. I can understand pensions, but unemployment payments are meant to be a very temporary thing so that workers can make ends meet till they get their next job. Not their bread and butter check for a few years, which is exactly what these kinds of Laws make them.

[PrimoLevinas @ Jul 28th 2008 12:07PM]

It´s not stupid, it´s easy to explain: Nokia had a contract with the ministry of research to get research funded which it was supposed to put in use in germany. This contract was broken when they chose to leave germany. Therefore they must pay the already paid subsidies back. Where´s the problem? You would do exactly the same had you already paid for one of nokias phones which they can´t deliver anymore, wouldn´t you?