German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble criticizes Volkswagen management over bonuses

Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has slammed the executive board of scandal-ridden automaker Volkswagen for not waiving bonuses regardless of bringing the company to the edge of collapse.

“I have no compassion for supervisors who first drive a large blue chip-listed business into an existence-threatening crisis then safeguard their own bonuses in a public debate,” Schaeuble informed German weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

“That reveals that something is not working.”

Volkswagen plans to pay the 12 former and current members of its management board 63.24 million euros (US$ 72.44 million) for 2015, a year when Europe’s largest carmaker published a record loss due to legal and payment costs for cheating diesel emissions tests.

The firm withheld a little part of perk payments but will award them at a later date if specific performance criteria are satisfied, consisting of a recuperation of the Volkswagen’s share cost.

The bonuses have triggered public outrage in Germany and a spat within Volkswagen’s supervisory board.