RBB director Brandstäter announces the end of the controversial bonus payments
“The savings are immense and then the executive floor can really have a good time”
“They call it target bonuses. At the end of the day, Schlesinger got something on top of the salary,” says Kayhan Özgenc, editor-in-chief of Business Insider, on the Schlesinger case. In the WELT talk, he reveals what his team found out about the previously secret bonus system for RBB executives.
The news was not only a surprise for the employees: In addition to their salaries, top managers at RBB also received “performance-related remuneration”. The broadcaster will abolish the bonus system, announces the managing director Hagen Brandstätter.
Dhe Managing Director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Hagen Brandstätter, has announced that the station’s management is aiming to end the bonus payments and will not make use of any additional payments this year.
“We in the management agree that this system of performance-related remuneration for executives no longer has a future,” said Brandstätter on the program “RBB-Special der Talk” on Wednesday evening. The board of directors will be asked to review whether this system will continue in this way, said Brandstätter, adding: “I dare to predict that it will not continue like this.”
During his questioning in the Potsdam state parliament: Hagen Brandstätter, managing director of the RBB
Source: dpa
Before the broadcast, the station’s management had disclosed the amount of the directors’ salaries to the RBB workforce. According to information from the German Press Agency, the broadcaster published a list of salaries and “performance-related remuneration” for employees on the company’s intranet. However, the remuneration of the recalled director Patricia Schlesinger was not listed.
The basic salaries of the four top managers at the top of the RBB were between 196,000 and 230,000 euros, the performance-related additional remuneration was between 30,738 euros and 39,195 euros. The bonuses thus totaled a six-digit amount. “Business Insider” (like WELT belongs to Axel Springer) and RBB had previously reported on this.
The bonus system is highly controversial because its existence was unknown until recently and it apparently does not exist in other ARD houses either. On Tuesday, Brandstätter had not given any figures on salaries and bonuses for top management in the Brandenburg state parliament. He even said that there was no bonus system at all. Rather, it is about non-tariff employment contracts – 27 of them would therefore be paid variably, including target agreements.
RBB research department researched on its own behalf
The RBB research team had previously reported that the much-discussed additional payments were higher than previously known. René Althammer, head of the research team, emphasized in the panel discussion how strange the situation was that he and his team were researching in-house against the house.
He would have preferred disclosure earlier, he continued. Intendant Brandstäter said in his own defense that he had to wait and see whether he could cancel the non-disclosure agreement in the employment contracts and that he had only now received this information from the board of directors.
WELT editor-in-chief Ulf Poschardt, who was also a guest in the group, praised the research of the RBB colleagues: “Now it’s time to create the greatest possible transparency and for me that’s the first step in the right direction.” but also renewed his criticism of the public service system. There are too many double structures and public service broadcasting is politically too one-sided.
The debate about the salary structure in the management team is one of the numerous allegations of nepotism that RBB and its former director Patricia Schlesinger are exposed to. Schlesinger rejects the allegations, as does the resigned chief inspector Wolf-Dieter Wolf. The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating both on suspicion of infidelity and acceptance of benefits.
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