Volkswagen states works council payments legal following raids

Volkswagen stated it had followed the law in the payment of its works council chief, Bernd Osterloh, whose workplace was raided on Tuesday along with those of its chairman, finance chief and head of personnel.

The raid by prosecutors and tax officers was associated with suspicions of overpayments and associated tax evasion. That is since over-remuneration might lead to overly high business costs and the payment of too little tax.

Files and computers were taken.

Both Volkswagen and the works council stated on Wednesday they were positive that Osterloh’s remuneration would be discovered to be certified with the law.

The works council suggested that Osterloh himself was not the target of the investigation.

It was revealed previously this year that German prosecutors were investigating existing and previous executives at Volkswagen on suspicion that they paid works council chief Bernd Osterloh an extreme wage.

Osterloh informed a paper at the time that his basic pay was around 200,000 euros ($237,000), and that rewards had raised it to a peak of 750,000 in one year.

In Germany, squandering corporate funds is legally a breach of fiduciary duty.