Regional court acquitted the accused Volkswagen personnel managers

In the infidelity process for the long-term approval of high salaries for senior works councils at Volkswagen, the Braunschweig regional court acquitted the four accused personnel managers. The competent chamber ruled that no criminal behavior could be proven. They did not follow the line of the public prosecutor's office, which had called for suspended sentences and monetary conditions for the executives in their plea. The question was whether three former managers and one who is still in office today had released inappropriately high salaries between 2011 and 2016 for particularly influential members of the VW workforce representation (Ref .: 16 KLs 85/19). From a legal point of view, the accusation was of breach of trust, sometimes in a particularly serious case. Part of the profit was reduced by the excessive salaries, which means that VW also paid less taxes. The prosecution put the damage to the largest European car manufacturer at more than five million euros. Critics of the group also suspected that the management might have tried to secure the works council's discretion through financial donations before making difficult decisions. Among the defendants were the ex-corporate personnel managers Horst Neumann and Karlheinz Blessing. The prosecutor had argued that all four managers had acted in breach of duty and deliberately with regard to the remuneration of senior works councils. All defense lawyers, however, had pleaded for acquittal. The main negotiation also dealt with the remuneration of the long-time ex-head of the workforce representation, Bernd Osterloh. In years with high bonuses he achieved total remuneration of up to three quarters of a million euros. As a witness in the process, he had emphasized: "I was not involved in any payment determination that affects my person." The main issue was whether there are any binding and sufficiently precise regulations for determining salaries for employee representatives. It is always important to weigh up at which career level the respective person would be today if he or she had decided instead for a position in management. In the opinion of some labor law experts, the current Works Constitution Act does not contain any clear guidelines on corresponding remuneration corridors or on which professional comparison groups are to be used when classifying a senior works council.