While Quebec could never see the color of his $470 million again injected into Northvolt, which is struggling with serious financial difficulties, the Swedish manufacturer is preparing to pay a sum of $7.6 million to 250 of its employees to prevent them from leaving the ship at the worst possible moment.
“Retention bonuses are equal to three, six or nine months of base salary and are distributed to eligible employees in three installments during the retention period,” specify court documents consulted by The Journal.
“The first two payments each represent 25% of the total sum, while the final payment represents the remaining 50%,” it reads.
These amounts received the approval of Judge Alfredo R. Perez, in the United States. This is a common practice when invoking Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy law there.
Asked by The JournalNorthvolt spokesperson Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau indicated that this aims to “retain employees who have a detailed knowledge of the organization and skills that are difficult to replace, particularly during this critical phase.”
“Their departure would risk significantly disrupting the efficiency and future growth of the company’s business. It is estimated that the cost of retention programs is lower than the cost of recruiting and training new employees,” she argued.
Structure de Northvolt
Table taken from court documents
Quebec factory
Last Thursday, the Northvolt company, behind “the largest private investment in recent Quebec history”, in the words of François Legault, filed a request for judicial relief in the United States.
But even if the battery manufacturer takes shelter from its creditors to restructure the debt of Northvolt AB and some of its subsidiaries, it ensures that the construction of its $7 billion battery factory in Quebec continues.
Paolo Cerruti, Pierre Fitzgibbon, François Legault, Justin Trudeau, François-Philippe Champagne and Peter Carlsson with the battery, during the announcement of the Swedish Northvolt mega-factory in Quebec for the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries in Saint-Basile -le-Grand and McMasterville. Montreal, September 28, 2023. PIERRE-PAUL POULIN/LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL/AGENCE QMI
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
In interview at The Joustat TVA, the co-founder and North American CEO of Northvolt, Paolo Cerruti, however recognized that the factory project here is more fragile than before.
“We realize that it will be difficult to isolate the Canadian sector,” he observed on the air.
“The market has shown signs of a bit of insecurity. There is a macroeconomic environment with geopolitical tensions,” he concluded.
– With the collaboration of Sylvain Larocque
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