Dieselgate Scandal Makes its Way to Executive Wallets

Volkswagen badge (Credit: Volkswagen)

In the corporate world, if you screw up, you shouldn’t get a bonus—I guess that doesn’t apply in Germany. Believe it or not, there is actually an ongoing debate within Volkswagen as to how much (if any) bonus its top-ranking managers should get, according to Reuters. For those who have forgotten, VW recently got caught cheating diesel emission tests by way of an electronic device that sensed when the car was on a diagnostic machine and retuned the engine to pull emissions within legal numbers. When the testing equipment was removed, the car went back to spewing nearly 40 times the legal limit of toxic gases.

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According to the report from Reuters, the debate on executive bonuses has ranged from no bonuses at all from the automaker’s second-largest shareholder, Lower Saxony (a German state), to slightly reduced bonuses from the labor leaders within the company. An insider told Reuters that an agreement has been made and that bonuses will be cut by at least 30 percent due to the company’s financial struggles and the impending hemorrhaging of cash that will come once all the fines from the dieselgate scandal are levied

While I appreciate the sentiment here, I am of the opinion that if these executives weren’t aware enough to know that the cheating was going on or just didn’t care, then they should get no bonuses. This lack of oversight is set to cost the automaker billions of dollars, so there is no rational explanation for any executives to get bonuses. They should all be happy just to have jobs at this point.

As we near the EPA’s April 21st deadline for VW to fix its diesel engines, we will continue to keep a close eye on the dieselgate scandal. Stay tuned for more information.