The board of directors of Deutsche Bahn do not want any bonus payments this year. The Bundestag, among other things, called for this – in return for the billions in aid.
Railway boss Richard Lutz and the other group boards are foregoing bonuses for the year 2021. This emerges from a letter from the board of directors to supervisory board chairman Michael Odenwald, which is available to the German press agency.
The top managers are complying with a request from the Bundestag budget committee. The parliamentarians had demanded the waiver in return for planned billions in aid for the railway. There was also such a waiver for 2020.
The executives made “a substantial and significantly disproportionate amount of savings in terms of personnel expenses”, emphasized the members of the Board of Management. They also want to campaign for a bonus waiver with around 70 board members of several railway subsidiaries. At the same time, the Board of Management confirmed that the variable remuneration method had to be revised.
Around 18,000 Deutsche Bahn employees receive variable remuneration components such as year-end benefits and profit sharing – not just top managers. For many of them, this is part of the collective bargaining agreement. Because of the large loss of income of the railways in the Corona crisis, the railroad agreed in September with the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) a zero round for the collective bargaining employees.
In November, Deutsche Bahn announced that it would also not increase the salaries of around 5,500 senior executives and non-tariff employees in 2021; these employees receive part of their remuneration in the form of a profit-sharing scheme.
According to the group management board, this could save a total of 180 million euros this year, compared to 194 million euros in the previous year. In this way, the executives make “a significant and clearly disproportionate contribution to savings within the personnel expenses”, says the letter to Odenwald.
EVG boss Klaus-Dieter Hommel called the waiver of bonuses by the corporate board a step in the right direction. However, all board members and executives would have to forego their variable remuneration. “If only the group’s board of directors waives, we will stick to symbolic politics.” Structural changes are also necessary. “The entire system of variable and performance-related pay must be thoroughly revised.”
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
