Volkswagen: Schäuble regrets the premiums paid – Le Figaro

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble regrets the payment of bonuses to executives of Volkswagen for 2015, a year marked by the scandal of the rigged anti-pollution tests, the most serious in the history of the automotive group.

“I ‘ have no sympathy for managers starting with lead leading company in a life-threatening crisis and then defend their personal premiums at a public debate, “says Wolfgang Schäuble in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung of columns.

“This shows that something is not working.”

Volkswagen plans to pay the twelve members of its Executive Board in 2015 to € 63.24 million under last year saw a record loss due to litigation costs and compensation related to “Dieselgate”.

Volkswagen said April 22 an annual operating loss of € 4.1 billion, reflecting 16.2 billion in special charges related to the scandal.

the German automaker , European leader in the sector, acknowledged in September have installed on 11 million vehicles worldwide since 2009 a hoax device emissions.

the case quickly became the largest ever crossing crisis by the group, causing it to lose up to a third of its value on the stock market and pushing the resignation its chief executive, Martin Winterkorn.

Volkswagen said it would hold a small share of 2015 bonus but would pay them at a later date if certain performance criteria are met, including a rise in the share price.

This decision shocked the German public and caused dissension in the group’s supervisory board.

The Land of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen’s second largest shareholder, demanded the removal or at least the reduction of these premiums.

Jörg Bode, a former member of the Supervisory Board representing the Lower Saxony, said in the columns of Welt am Sonntag that Martin Winterkorn and his colleagues should pay part of their premiums corresponding to “cost reductions obtained by fraud”.

There are some days, Bernd Osterloh, member of the Supervisory Board and chairman of the powerful Volkswagen works council, ruled that the group was to ignore its contractual obligations and that management should voluntarily give up his bonus. “It is also a moral issue,” he he said.

“As soon as the business will have returned to normal, we must also think about the pay system changes (the Supervisory Board), “he said.