The works council of the Volkswagen Group is currently being shaken up.

A court recently declared the election of the employee representatives at the Wolfsburg headquarters to be invalid, which means that the vote may have to be repeated.

Now the remuneration of the works councils is once again coming into focus.

A ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) may mean that Volkswagen will noticeably cut the salaries of some employee representatives.

Christian Muessgens

Business correspondent in Hamburg.

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The starting point was a criminal case at the Braunschweig Regional Court in 2021. Four VW HR managers were charged there, who, according to the public prosecutor's office, should have approved inappropriately lavish salaries and bonuses for high-ranking works councils.

The court acquitted the accused, but the BGH recently overturned the verdict (AZ: 6 StR 133/22).

According to the chief criminal judge, the Braunschweig decision does not meet the legal requirements.

The written reasons for the judgment are not yet available.

But the Wolfsburg car company is already preparing to revise the salary system for its 250 works council members at Volkswagen AG.

Those who received a letter from VW at the end of last week can breathe a sigh of relief.

In it, the group is said to have informed around 170 employee representatives that the BGH decision will probably have no effect on their salary.

The “Handelsblatt” reported about it first.

An internal working group is now examining possible consequences for the other representatives.

According to information from the FAZ, those affected hope for more clarity from a meeting of the group works council on Thursday.

According to informed circles, the Federal Supreme Court will also be on the sidelines of the agenda.

The “hypothetical” career

VW announces that it will “carefully examine” the judgment of the BGH.

Insofar as it contains statements on the standard of works council remuneration, "VW AG will be guided by these and take them into account".

After its verdict in early January, the 6th Criminal Senate has five months to complete the written justification and then publish it.

In general, however, it is expected that things will go faster.

According to the law, anyone who is released to work on the works council may not be disadvantaged or favored.

What that means for the specific remuneration is controversial.

"Hypothetical" careers are often used, i.e. career paths that a person concerned might have taken if he had not joined the works council.

In the case of the former VW works council chief Bernd Osterloh, this meant that he earned around 750,000 euros including bonuses at the top, a salary at the level of managers.

Should it be confirmed that these procedures are not permissible from the point of view of the BGH, this would have consequences for many companies in Germany.

In the case of VW, it is said that not only top earners have to cut back.

Interventions would probably also be pending in the tariff segment.

In the six western German VW plants, with the exception of Osnabrück, 98 percent of the members of the works council currently receive normal wages, it was heard on Tuesday.

Four representatives are therefore assigned to management salary classes.

In addition, there appears to be a large number of cases in which everything is likely to remain the same because no "hypothetical" careers have been created.

This apparently also applies to the current chairwoman of the group works council.

After Daniela Cavallo replaced Osterloh two years ago, she made her salary public.

It was said at the time that she received around 100,000 euros as a fixed annual salary.

In addition, there is a five-digit amount from bonuses that depend on the business success of the group and other influences.

The order of magnitude is still the same, they say.

There are no signs that Cavallo should expect any changes.