Volkswagen expects to sanction more workers in emissions scandal: Poetsch

Volkswagen expects to expand disciplinary action beyond the two dozen workers the automaker has already suspended in a diesel emissions scandal, Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch stated.

“It is to be anticipated that there will yet be a whole string of (personnel) effects,” Poetsch told reporters late on Monday during the eve of the Geneva Motor Show.

The car manufacturer has avoided doing acting against workers at the request of U.S. authorities in order to not endanger the success of investigations, Poetsch stated.

Legal queries will end on Friday when the automaker is set to plead guilty in Detroit to 3 felony counts under a plea agreement to solve U.S. charges it set up secret software application in automobiles to permit them to discharge pollution as much as 40 times the legal limit.

Under a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. regulators, Volkswagen accepted to sweeping reforms, new audits and oversight by an independent monitor for three years to fix diesel emissions investigations.