Vienna, April 15, 2026. OMV is streamlining its operations\u2014thoroughly, quickly, and as quietly as possible. Since the Easter holidays, an offer has been circulating among employees of the partially state-owned energy company that\u2019s hard to turn down: Anyone who leaves voluntarily will receive a golden handshake. The terms are said to be generous, and interest is correspondingly high. The company plans to cut 400 full-time positions by 2027. All of this is happening just a few weeks before the new CEO, Daniela Vlad-Cibira, officially takes the helm.<\/p>\n
The timing of this move is no coincidence. Anyone familiar with the corporate world knows the drill: A new leadership team wants to start with a clean slate. Legacy issues, difficult decisions, unpopular measures\u2014those are dealt with beforehand. The outgoing leadership team takes the blame, allowing the new one to present itself as a visionary rather than an austerity commissioner. It\u2019s a tried-and-true pattern, and OMV is executing it perfectly.<\/p>\n
Officially, the job cuts are said to be part of a strategic realignment. The company has to get fit for the energy transition, become leaner, more efficient. That sounds reasonable. But behind the scenes, it's about more than just efficiency. It's about power, about control, about the question of who will be in charge at Austria's most important energy company in the future.<\/p>\n
Golden handshakes cost money. A lot of money. According to insiders, the severance payments are significantly higher than the legal minimum; otherwise, the workforce\u2019s keen interest would be hard to explain. Ultimately, taxpayers also bear these costs. The Austrian government holds a 31.5 percent stake in OMV through \u00d6BAG. When the company spends millions on severance packages, it reduces the dividend\u2014and thus the federal government\u2019s revenue.<\/p>\n
In addition to the managers, who are elegantly ridding themselves of an unpleasant task, the main beneficiaries are, above all, international investors. They want lean structures and high returns. The interests of the workforce, the Austrian locations, and long-term security of supply\u2014all of that is a different matter.<\/p>\n
To call this a \u201evoluntary\u201c downsizing program is, at best, a euphemism. Anyone who has been working at OMV for years feels the pressure. The message is clear: Anyone who doesn\u2019t leave now could be shown the door later without a severance package. It\u2019s an offer you can\u2019t refuse, because the alternative could be even more unpleasant. This kind of \u201cvoluntary\u201d departure leaves a bitter aftertaste.<\/p>\n
The silence of politics is also remarkable. Not a single critical word from the \u00d6VP and the Greens, who represent the state in \u00d6BAG. No questions as to whether this dismantling is strategically sensible. No debate as to whether a partially state-owned company should be shedding expertise in times of geopolitical energy uncertainty. The motto seems to be: Close your eyes and get through it.<\/p>\n
OMV presents itself as a modern corporation preparing for the future. The reality is far more mundane: Unpopular decisions are being pushed through ahead of a leadership change, financed with taxpayer money, while politicians look the other way. When Daniela Vlad-Cibira starts her first day as CEO in May, the dirty work will already be done. She will then be able to announce a fresh start\u2014at the expense of 400 people who have lost their jobs. YANUS will stay on top of this.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Golden handshakes instead of honest explanations: Since Easter, OMV has been luring employees away from the company with attractive severance packages. 400 jobs are set to be cut even before the new CEO, Daniela Vlad-Cibira, takes office. A coincidence? Hardly.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\nMehr lesen: {url}\n\n{tags}\n#YANUS","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[48,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oesterreich","category-politik"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/omv-r-umt-auf-bevor-die-neue-chefin-die-t-re-aufm.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3253,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions\/3253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yanus.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}