Daimler employees to get special bonus marking 125th anniversary of automobile

Associated Press (Berlin) - Daimler AG will pay a special bonus of up to euro1,000 ($1,370) each to its employees worldwide to mark the 125th anniversary of Carl Benz's first automobile patent, the company said Thursday.

The payments, totaling euro125 million, will be made at the end of February. Anyone who has worked for Daimler for over a year will be eligible and the size of the payments will depend on how long people have been with the company.

Daimler has 260,000 employees worldwide, about 165,000 of them in Germany.

CEO Dieter Zetsche said the payment is meant to reward the commitment of its workers, "not least the efforts and success of the recent past."

Benz — a co-founder of Benz & Co., one of present-day Daimler's forefathers — is credited with creating the world's first vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine. He filed his patent on Jan. 29, 1886.

Also Thursday, Daimler said it agreed separately with its employee council on bonus payments of euro3,150 to workers in Germany to reflect the company's successful performance last year. Those payments will be made at the end of April.

Daimler's employees "made a very significant comeback to Daimler's strong comeback last year," Zetsche said.

Daimler releases its 2010 earnings report on Feb. 16. It raised its outlook several times during the year as strong sales in China and the U.S. helped power strong increases in earnings.

In late October, it said it expected 2010 earnings before interest and taxes from its ongoing business of more than euro7 billion — compared with a forecast of euro4 billion a few months earlier.

Daimler shares closed down 0.7 percent in Frankfurt at euro55.90.