Siemens increases funding for BenQ workers

German vendor Siemens reportedly caved in to pressure from the unions on Monday, adding a further Eur24m (£16m) to the hardship fund set up for BenQ Mobile employees.

But the cash, which comes on top of some Eur35m already contributed, has reportedly been dismissed by the IG Metall union as inadequate.

The Taiwanese-German joint venture, BenQ Mobile, was established just over a year ago when the German firm effectively paid BenQ Eur50m to take the ailing division off its hands.

Earlier this month, BenQ announced that it could not turn the division around and decided to kill it off.

In a show of solidarity to its former employees, Siemens executives have forgone a 30 per cent pay rise for a year in order to help set up a hardship fund for BenQ Mobile employees. The fund is designed to help with training and finding of new staff positions.

The German vendor is also gearing up to sue BenQ for abandoning the venture.