Railway boards should forego bonuses

After the record loss last year, the railway is dependent on federal aid billions. However, according to Parliament’s will, this should only exist if the board of directors waives bonuses.

In return for planned aid from the federal government in the Corona crisis at Deutsche Bahn, the board of directors should forego bonuses. This emerges from a decision of the budget committee of the Bundestag, which is available to the German press agency. According to the resolution, the Management Board of Deutsche Bahn AG will be asked to forego variable remuneration or comparable remuneration components, special payments, profit sharing or other separate remuneration in 2022 for the 2021 financial year. In view of the corona crisis, the group management board had not received any bonuses for the past year.

Help against bonuses

The federally owned Deutsche Bahn is dependent on federal financial aid, as the Corona crisis had caused a slump in passenger numbers. The result was a record loss of 5.7 billion euros in 2020. In order to cope with the loss, the federal government had already announced billions in aid. An increase in equity by five billion euros is planned. However, the payment is dependent on the approval of the EU Commission. It must ensure that the aid does not put competitors at a disadvantage. One of the requirements of the EU is said to have included the executive board’s waiver of bonuses, as the “Spiegel” reported.

Criticism from the union side

The discussion about the Executive Board bonuses for the current year was therefore held intensively. In January, the federal chairman of the Union of German Locomotive Drivers (GDL), Claus Weselsky, criticized the DB board of directors saying that “their own bonuses are obviously more important than the weal and woe of the railway system”. The DB board did not want to tighten their belts despite Corona, but demanded that from the direct staff, according to Weselsky. The Green budget politician Sven-Christian Kindler said: “There is no question that the board of directors cannot get bonuses in view of the billions in aid. Right so that the budget committee has clarified that again.”

Reform of the remuneration rules

Kindler also demanded that the bonus regulations for the rail board would have to be fundamentally revised and reduced for the time after Corona. In general, the federal government must ensure that the board of directors is remunerated with moderation and moderation. According to Kindler, it could not be that the variable remuneration, i.e. the bonus payments, was as high as the fixed salary in the last few years before Corona. The current freeze on bonuses is the ideal opportunity to reform the remuneration regulations for the railway management board.

Agreement with Brussels soon?

The negotiations between the German government and the EU Commission should be on the home straight. Significant progress has been made, reported the dpa news agency, citing government circles. The aim is to find an “industry solution” from which not only Deutsche Bahn but also the competition should benefit. The focus is on lowering train path prices, for example in rail freight transport. This is now stored in the planned supplementary federal budget for 2021. In return, when the federal government plans to increase equity for Deutsche Bahn, there should no longer be any competition requirements for the group. The aim is a “modular solution” totaling around five billion euros.