Ikea cuts wages for unvaccinated people in isolation
The furniture store Ikea is tightening the rules for employees without a corona vaccination in Great Britain.
Nile.
The global furniture company Ikea has announced in Great Britain that it will drastically cut sickness benefits for unvaccinated employees. In the future, employees who have to go into self-isolation due to close contact with an infected person will only receive around 96 pounds (around 120 francs) per week instead of the average 400 pounds. This was reported by the British daily “The Guardian” on Monday (January 10th). In England – as in Switzerland – fully vaccinated people are exempt from the quarantine rule after close contact.
Ikea is not the only major corporation that is increasing the pressure on unvaccinated staff. While many employers initially tried mostly to motivate their employees to have a vaccination by various means such as paid hours for the vaccination appointment, they now rely on other means. At Delta Airlines, unvaccinated employees in the US have had to pay $ 200 a month in fines since September. With competitor United Airlines, the tech group Google and the big bank Citigroup, they even threaten to lose their jobs.
Ikea employees in Great Britain do not have to fear losing their jobs, as workers are legally better protected than in the USA, writes the daily newspaper. However, this does not apply to all industries. Vaccination has been mandatory for nursing staff since November.
US technology exchange Nasdaq falls at the start of trading just under two percent
The Swiss SMI has lost over two percent since the beginning of the year.
kca.
The sell-off on the stock exchanges continues. Technology stocks were hit particularly hard. The index of the American technology exchange Nasdaq fell at the start of trading on Monday (January 10th) by almost two percent. So he continued his losing streak in the new year. The Dow Jones Industrial and the broader S&P 500 index each also lost around one percent.
Bitcoin also continued its downward slide. The cryptocurrency hit its lowest level since September 2021 on Monday, dropping below the $ 40,000 mark. The losses on the stock exchanges include interest rate concerns, the unrest in Kazakhstan and the tense corona situation due to the Omikron variant in the USA.
The Swiss stock exchange also continued its negative trend. The SMI posted a loss of 1.63 percent on Monday. The index has already lost more than 2 percent since the beginning of the year.
The ailing shipbuilder MV Werften files for bankruptcy
The shipyard in Stralsund of the company MV Werften, which is in great difficulty.
(dpa) The MV Werften in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have filed for bankruptcy. In talks between the federal government, the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the owner Genting from Hong Kong, no solution for further financing was found, the company said. The approximately 1900 employees were informed about the bankruptcy in the morning by the management.
According to a spokeswoman, the federal government is ready to continue helping the shipyard within the framework of the economic stabilization fund. In addition, one is in talks with the company and investors. The Federal Ministry of Economics pointed out that the federal government had submitted an offer before Christmas. She spoke of a volume of 600 million euros in federal funds.
The shipyards in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund have belonged to the listed gaming and cruise company Genting since 2016. The collapse of the cruise business in the Corona crisis had brought the parent company into financial difficulties.
MV Werften did not succeed in securing the financing of the 75 percent finished and around 1.5 billion euro new build of the cruise ship “Global Dream”. It is considered to be one of the largest cruise ships ever built.
Natural disasters cause $ 280 billion in damage
Even months after the flood disaster in mid-July, the extent of the destruction cannot be overlooked: Destroyed buildings of the local community of Rech in the Ahr Valley.
(dpa) According to an analysis by Munich Re, 2021 joins the worrying long-term trend of increasing destruction from natural disasters. Worldwide storms, floods and other natural hazards caused damage of 280 billion dollars last year, as the reinsurer announced on Monday. According to Munich Re, less than half of this was insured at $ 120 billion.
For Europe, last summer’s devastating flash floods in Germany and its neighboring countries were the most expensive natural disaster to date, at 54 billion dollars and 46 billion euros, respectively, of which 33 billion euros were in Germany. But the USA was hit even harder, where tornadoes, hurricanes and a cold spell hit $ 145 billion.
In the inflation-adjusted ranking of the natural disaster years in 2021, according to Munich Re, it ranks fourth. The most expensive year so far was 2011, when the seaquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear disaster in Japan drove the global economic damage to 355 billion dollars. “Unfortunately, a total of 280 billion in 2021 fits into the longstanding observation of increasing damage,” said Ernst Rauch, the company’s chief climatologist. According to Munich Re, the more frequent occurrence of extreme weather conditions associated with climate change plays a decisive role. In addition to Ida, 20 other tropical cyclones formed in the northern Atlantic last year. “The long-term mean is much lower, around 14 hurricanes a year,” said Rauch.
New car shortage drives up sales of car radios
(dpa) The shortages of new vehicles in the corona pandemic are causing many consumers to upgrade old vehicles with more modern audio technology. At the hi-fi giant Harman, for example, the retrofit solutions business grew by 30 percent last year. “It’s still a smaller part of our business, but it was a nice surprise,” said Harman manager Dave Rogers, who is responsible for audio products, of the German press agency during the CES technology fair in Las Vegas.
The retrofitting business with audio technology was generally seen as a discontinued model before the pandemic, as more and more cars in various price ranges are being equipped with infotainment systems ex works. Harman, with brands such as Harman / Kardon or JBL, also primarily supplies manufacturers directly in the automotive sector.
However, the production downtimes in view of the global shortage of chips mean that more car buyers are switching to used cars and then want to install new audio technology. Market researchers are now increasingly seeing retrofit solutions as a growth driver for the coming years.
Harman himself was also affected on a broad front by the bottlenecks in semiconductor products, said Rogers. “The only chips we can get enough of are those in wireless earbuds.” With all others – whether amplifier chips or Bluetooth modules – the supply is limited.
At the same time, consumer demand for audio technology remains strong in the pandemic. Across the industry, it has been observed that many people have spent more money on home electronics since spending more time at home in corona lockdowns. At Harman, which has been part of the Samsung Group for several years, the audio business grew by almost ten percent last year – although the large area of professional technology for concerts and cinemas was at a standstill with the pandemic, said Rogers.
Inflation in the euro area reaches a record high of 5 percent
Petrol prices remain the most important drivers of inflation.
(dpa) The inflation rate in the euro area rose to another record high at the end of 2021. Consumer prices in December were 5 percent above the level of the previous year, as the Eurostat statistics office announced on Friday in Luxembourg after an initial estimate. It is the highest rate of inflation since the introduction of the euro. In the previous month, the rate of price increase was 4.9 percent. Compared to the previous month, consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in December.
The rise in prices in the countries with the common currency was once again driven by an extremely sharp rise in energy prices, which rose by 26 percent compared to the same month last year. Food and beverages were 3.2 percent more expensive in December than a year ago.
Excluding energy, food and beverages, the price level rose by 2.6 percent in December. This so-called core rate is viewed by many economists as a reliable measure of the inflation trend.
The medium-term inflation target of the European Central Bank (ECB) of two percent will be exceeded significantly. An interest rate hike is no longer in sight. The ECB sees inflation primarily driven by special factors and expects the inflation rate to decline over the course of the year.
Loudspeaker specialist Sonos prevails in patent dispute against Google
(dpa) The loudspeaker specialist Sonos has won a patent dispute with Google in the USA. The ITC trade authority came to the conclusion that the Internet group infringed five of the hi-fi company’s patents on various of its devices. The ITC can prohibit the import of goods into the USA in the event of patent infringements. To prevent this, Google changed some functions on its devices – in the hope that it would no longer infringe the patents.
In the future, users of a group of several networked speakers will have to change the volume for each of them individually instead of for all of them together. As a reason, Google referred to a “recent legal decision” on Friday night.
In the lawsuit filed in early 2020, Sonos targeted various Google devices such as Pixel-branded smartphones and Nest-branded networked speakers. The patents are about technologies for synchronizing audio playback between multiple devices, for volume control and WLAN connection. In return, Google also sued Sonos with allegations of patent infringement.
With its decision, the commission followed the assessment of one of its judges published in August. An import ban imposed by the ITC can be overturned by the US president – which, however, rarely happens.
Low-cost airline Ryanair gives up base in Frankfurt
(dpa) Europe’s largest low-cost airline, Ryanair, is giving up its base at Frankfurt Airport. The five aircraft still stationed there would be redistributed to cheaper airports on March 31 of this year, the Irish company announced on Friday. The reason given by the company was the increased take-off and landing fees at Germany’s largest airport at the turn of the year. Passengers with tickets already booked would be notified in the coming days and refunded. For the crews, Ryanair offers alternative jobs in its rapidly growing European network.