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In the dispute over the amount of salaries and bonuses for influential works councils, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned the acquittals for four VW HR managers.
The sixth criminal senate in Leipzig classified a judgment by the Braunschweig regional court as incomplete.
The case was referred back to Braunschweig for a new trial and decision.
The background to the proceedings is the remuneration that several senior Volkswagen works council members received between 2011 and 2016.
According to the findings of the judiciary, the bonuses paid for the employee representatives ranged between 80,000 and 560,000 euros a year.
The long-standing head of the works council, Bernd Osterloh, received up to 750,000 euros, including his salary, in years with a high bonus.
The accused managers released the salaries and bonuses.
The court in Braunschweig acquitted the manager of the allegation of infidelity in 2021.
There was no evidence of intent on the part of the human resources managers.
The defendants erroneously assumed that their decisions on works council salaries did not violate any obligations.
They would have found a remuneration system and also relied on the legal assessment of internal and external consultants, who would have classified the system as permissible.
On the other hand, the public prosecutor assessed the approval of these salaries as breach of trust, because VW lost profits and the payment of taxes was reduced as a result.
She filed an appeal against the Braunschweig verdict, which has now been decided in Leipzig.
From the point of view of the BGH, the regional court had assumed the correct legal standards.
The Senate explained that if board members granted works councils excessive remuneration, the crime of infidelity could be fulfilled.
The Works Constitution Act prescribes a ban on preferential treatment for works councils.
"But we are missing the answer to the question of which standards the approval decisions were based on in the judgment," said the presiding judge Günther Sander.
Accordingly, there were no statements as to when a promotion was planned for VW employees, which rules applied to admission to certain management circles or which standards were used as a basis for granting bonuses.
According to Sander, the regional court's assessment of the intent of the accused was also incomplete because the high bonuses were not taken into account.
"The Senate is therefore unable to assess whether the approval of the monthly remuneration and bonus payments contradicts the principles of works constitution law and whether the regional court correctly denied that the accused had acted with intent." Now another white-collar crime chamber in Braunschweig will have to deal with the case again .
Works council calls for reforms
Volkswagen announced that it intended to follow the judgment of the Federal Court of Justice “insofar as it contained findings on the scale of works council remuneration”.
The company pointed out that lawsuits on the subject are also pending at labor courts, which could result in reassessments.
A spokesman for the group works council said that the judgment shows that there is an acute need for reform of the legal guidelines in the Works Constitution Act for the determination of works council remuneration by the company.
"After 50 years of standstill, the legislator is urgently needed." The topic goes beyond Volkswagen and affects the work of thousands of employee representatives.
dab/dpa
