KTM has had a tough time lately. Maybe that was it all this investment in the X-Bowmaybe the company not enough track-only RC 8Cs madeor maybe the problem started when it rejected Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. No matter the race-ready manufacturer now appears to be ready for bankruptcy proceedingsand it is now said to be having difficulty holding out for that long.

KTM workers are still waiting for their November paychecks. The company promised to offset this with an advance on December salaries. Now it’s going back on its word and saying December pay will come at the end of the month – seemingly without saying whether the company would pay its employees more than a fraction of the Christmas bonus. Out of Crown newspapertranslated:

“There is simply no handshake quality anymore,” says Andreas Stangl. The President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor is outraged by the developments at KTM. After the company assured the more than 3,600 affected employees that it would pay them a 90 percent advance on their December salary a few days after the opening of insolvency proceedings, the workforce was then put off with this payment until shortly before Christmas.

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A blow for employees who are already waiting for their November salary and the majority of their Christmas bonus. “It’s devastating,” says Mattighofen’s mayor Daniel Lang. The mayor reports on employees who were among the first 250 layoffs in December: “They still got 300 euros for the one day in November and their share of the Christmas bonus.” They have nothing left.”

The Kronen Zeitung previously reported that employees only received a twelfth of their Christmas bonus. However, it is not known whether the company intends to make up the remainder with a Christmas bonus Membership in the Jelly Of The Month Club. It may be the gift that keeps on giving all year long, but it’s not a suitable replacement for the pay that employees rely on as part of their salary.

It is unclear what will happen next for KTM and what consequences the company’s impending bankruptcy will have. The plan is to deliver four RC16 factory bikes for the 2025 MotoGP season, but with that program on “pause,” it is not clear what will happen to riders Maverick Viñales, Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta. Acosta said that The bankruptcy has no impact on the racing teamsbut he also didn’t know about the bankruptcy before extending his contract – there may be more going on behind the scenes than the drivers are being told.

It’s also not clear what will happen to Husqvarna, GasGas or MV Agusta – all companies that KTM either owns or in which KTM has a large stake. Regardless, KTM’s impending restructuring or loss is truly a blow to the motorcycle world. One can only wonder where the company would be now if that were the case I gave Ewan and Charley a couple of bikes.

h/t RideApart