Display maker Royole pays staff after six-month delay
Some employees of Royole Corp. – a flexible display startup with a major manufacturing plant in Shenzhen, China – have received back wages owed for nearly six months, according to a local report.
However, the back pay was not extended to employees who have tried to sue their employer for non-payment of wages, a report said. The report added that one employee had been told that employees that withdrew lawsuits would be paid before those that do not.
Royole has been in financial difficulties since the end of 2021, according to the report. It was revealed at the beginning of April that Royole had stopped paying wages, put employees on vacation and that only a small part of its production line was in operation.
Royole was founded in 2012 and has raised more than $1 billion since then. The company achieved a major coup in 2018 when it beat Apple and Samsung to the development of a folding display for smartphones (see Apple, Samsung beaten to launch of foldable smartphone).
Time for a bail-out
In April Liu Shuwei, an independent director of Royole, said the company had struggled to achieve volume sales and sufficient cash flow to pay staff, according to a report. This had stopped the production line for flexible screens from operating normally and prevented Royole from fulfilling orders for Airbus, it quoted Liu saying.
At that time Liu called for a government bail-out of the company and for it to introduce strategic investors, it said.
The source of the funding for wage payments is thought to be a bank loan but it remains unclear whether wages will continue to be paid going forward.
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