Your baby is happily babbling in a small three-room apartment in the canton of Aargau. Samira K.* (34) takes her son in her arms and gently pats his head. “She is six months old. She was born too early,” her mother says when she takes Blick. The little one has a flaw in her heart. This makes Samira K.*’s life even harder.
The Aargau native is one of 131 salespeople for Vögele Shoes, who were cold-blooded in early December. His resignation: a standard letter with no thanks for working for many years at the shoe chain, which is now closing branches because it’s bankrupt. K. wishes to remain anonymous because he fears that he will not be able to find another job.
A year ago, marketer K. was almost shocked when his boss informed him that the Vögele branch in Aarau had been closed. Since then he has worked at other branches many times. Disappointment: Vögele Shoes reported earlier, but withdrew it because K. was pregnant.
In July, the situation worsened. Their son Ilyas was born. At the same time, the traditional chain Vögele Shoes went bankrupt.
Samira K. is left alone with fate
An adventure began for the young mother. Since her son was born two months early, she applied for an extension of maternity leave. Vogele did not inform them about the upcoming layoffs. K. describes his condition as “I don’t know what happened to me”.
Samira K.* kept calling the human resources department of the Vögele shoe chain. Unsuccessful. “The day I got back to work, I was told over the phone that my maternity leave would be extended,” says K. Until then, he had always been getting paid. Nothing else since November. As his HR department said on the phone, he’s running out of money now as he won’t be getting any salary, care or child benefits for December and January either. His employment ends on January 30, 2023.
K. seeks help – fails to succeed
K. did not want to admit the lack of salary and turned to Blick. “I am at home with a sick child and now I have no money,” complains K. It is not clear how things will go. He brought in a legal counsel, but he couldn’t help him either: he was told that because Vögele Shoes had filed for bankruptcy, the company could not pay any compensation or childcare allowance.
Vogele apologizes
Blick confronted Vögele Shoes with the case K, the company replied: “If we make a mistake, the person concerned will be compensated immediately. In principle, wages are paid by Karl Vögele AG until the last working day, depending on the leave status.» This is regulated by law during the debt restructuring moratorium and Vögele adheres to it.
In addition, Vögele wanted to formally apologize to Samira K. “All employees are very important to us, so if there is a mistake, we want to fix it.” Now K. waits with interest whether Vögele really kept his word. But he no longer believes it.
* Name known to editors