Scandal in the RBB: high bonus for Schlesinger

Before the Brandenburg state parliament, the managing director of Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg (RBB) denied that "bonuses" would be paid in his station.

But they do exist, they just have different names.

They are shown as "flexible salary components" or "target bonus".

And they run pretty high.

According to information from the online service "Business Insider", the artistic director Patricia Schlesinger, who first resigned and was then fired without notice, and the directors of the station together received more than 200,000 euros per year in this way.

The bonus system was introduced more than four years ago.

In addition to her “base salary” of 261,000 euros, Schlesinger received an expense allowance, a family allowance, monetary benefits and said “target bonus” in 2020 – more than 60,000 euros.

Schlesinger's salary would have been far beyond 300,000 euros in 2020, and in 2021 her basic salary - allegedly negotiated privately with Wolf-Dieter Wolf, the head of the board of directors who has since resigned - was increased to 303,000 euros.

The bonus system is said to have been developed in 2018 at the instigation of Schlesinger and Wolf.

The consulting company Kienbaum was called in for this and received a five-figure sum for developing the sophisticated system.

According to the internal RBB researchers, it worked as follows: The members of the management - director and four directors - receive a "basic salary" of 100 percent and a so-called "basic salary".

The base salary is 8.33 percent below the base salary and is paid monthly.

The 8.33 percent would initially be held back and tied to the fulfillment of personalized goals.

If the "goals" are achieved, there is a surcharge of 20 percent.

Anyone who has "significantly exceeded" their goals will receive 25 percent more than their "base salary" would have accounted for.

So far, the broadcaster has not disclosed exactly how the premium or bonus system in the RBB behaves.

In this case, the “Business Insider” and the in-house research team as well as inquiries from other journalists said: “With regard to the ongoing investigations by the Attorney General’s Office, we are currently not providing any information on the details of Patricia Schlesinger’s administration, which closes the question of variable salary components.”