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Accused ex-VW board member Karlheinz Blessing: "Considerable and strategic qualification"
Photo: Moritz Frankenberg / dpa
Three former Volkswagen personnel managers and one incumbent are indicted before the Braunschweig regional court. The prosecution accuses the managers of having approved excessive salaries for senior staff representatives. Because the group had less profit due to the size of the payments, the accusation of breach of trust is at the expense of the automaker. In addition, the tax payments were lower due to the lower profit.
The defendants rejected the prosecution's allegations at the start of the trial.
"I did not start out from the assumption that I could illegally favor Mr. Osterloh and others," said ex-corporate HR manager Karlheinz Blessing.
The long-time former head of the VW workforce representation, Bernd Osterloh, and four other senior works council members are believed to have received excessive payments and bonuses between 2011 and 2016 - allegedly unlawful, but deliberately approved by the company's management.
In good years, Osterloh earned up to 750,000 euros
Blessing, who had assumed responsibility for personnel issues at the largest European car manufacturer at the beginning of 2016, emphasized that he was told at the time that when it came to salary classification, everything was “legally checked and in order”: “I consider the accusation against me to be unfounded. “It was also clear that Osterloh and other higher works councils - de facto comparable management positions - had acquired a lot of experience and a“ considerable and strategic qualification ”. Therefore, the approved salaries were also appropriate. In good bonus years, Osterloh earned a total of up to 750,000 euros.
Blessing's lawyer Hanns Feigen criticized the public prosecutor's office using the means of criminal proceedings to deal with a fundamental issue of labor law. "The jurisprudence of the Federal Labor Court and the State Labor Courts undermines the prosecution," he said. Public prosecutor Sonja Walther, on the other hand, said that the personnel managers had "deliberately chosen the criteria in such a way that apparently an increased salary was justified, although this was not correct" and only came about through the powerful position in the works council. For some observers, the suspicion of "bought" loyalty resonates.
Horst Neumann, VW Group Personnel Manager until 2015, said that the Wolfsburg-based carmaker had been led out of a major crisis after taking over from Peter Hartz in 2005. When paying the works councils, one always adhered to legal requirements: "These employee representatives negotiate on an equal footing with the management." It could not be a solution to keep paying them at the level of their starting salary. This is especially true for Osterloh. "We would certainly not have used him as a porter."
Another defendant, who still holds a high position in the VW group today, countered the prosecutor's allegations even more decisively.
When assessing the salary, for example, he acted for Osterloh in accordance with the Works Constitution Act.
On the other hand, paying Osterloh like members of a comparison group on the basis of his old initial qualifications before starting his works council career would not have been an option: "That is absurd in my eyes." The fourth manager did not want to comment on the allegations.
mmq / dpa