Deutsche Bahn will pay around 42,000 employees a “profit share” for 2023. The total amounts to: NDR-Information totals an amount in the mid three-digit million range.
The year 2023 will be characterized by an “unsatisfactory operational situation” for Deutsche Bahn, according to an internal communication from the group NDR is present. The punctuality targets were once again clearly missed. The bottom line at the end of the financial year is a loss of 2.4 billion euros.
Nevertheless, tens of thousands of railway employees will receive a “profit share” next Thursday. DB confirmed the upcoming payout. An executive who benefits from the payment himself criticizes the remuneration practice as not performance-related and describes the company as a “takeaway shop”.
Between 15 and 35 percent of the annual salary
The recipients include around 34,700 collective bargaining employees, 4,100 senior managers and 3,400 non-tariff employees at DB – for example, the group leaders of train drivers, IT experts or heads of maintenance. Most receive between 15 and 35 percent of their annual salary, on average a low five-figure sum.
DB spokesman Achim Stauß said this NDR, that the payment is contractually agreed and justified: “Employees who work for the railway all year round, who have to work under difficult conditions, are entitled to be financially rewarded.” However, he can understand if there is a “disturbing feeling” from the customer’s perspective due to poor operational quality.
The Green Party’s transport policy spokesman, Stefan Gelbhaar, said: “2023 was a difficult year for the railway – it is difficult to convey that the employee participation was paid out as if it had been a good year.” The DB board had to forego its bonuses in 2023 because the company took advantage of the electricity price brake, but had received the performance bonuses for 2022 – and subsequently paid them out after the electricity price brake expired.
Bonus ban exclusively for “members of the first management level”
The railway had used more than 50 million euros in aid from the federal government. In such cases, the law provides for a ban on bonuses for “management” and “supervisory bodies”. When asked, the Federal Ministry of Transport stated that this only meant “members of the first management level”. In the case of stock corporations like Deutsche Bahn, this means “all board members”. The payment of profit sharing for the tens of thousands of employees is apparently not affected.
The annual bonus is a performance-related supplement to the fixed salary for around 42,000 railway employees, around 20 percent of the workforce in Germany. The railway’s personnel costs amounted to a total of around 19 billion euros in 2023.
The amount of the payment depends on whether the company and, in some cases, the individual employee have achieved previously set goals. Internal documents relating to this NDR available show: The payment will be made this year, even though the group’s performance in the areas of customer satisfaction and punctuality in regional and long-distance transport is still below that of the previous year.
This is possible, among other things, because the goals for 2023 were lower than in the previous year. The target for customer satisfaction in 2022 was still 74.1 percent. In 2023 it was only 70 percent. And even that lower goal has been torn down.
Poor punctuality scores
When it comes to punctuality in long-distance transport, the target for 2023 is even below the so-called “knock-out value” for 2022. This value describes the limit below which no bonus is paid for a key figure. However, in regional and long-distance transport even these lower target values were still undercut. Only in freight transport did the railway perform better than planned in terms of punctuality.
For a DB manager, the calculation is difficult to understand. “Goals must be achievable but also ambitious. From the customer’s perspective, the target values are already a catastrophe, but we still don’t reach them and still get more bonuses than last year.”
According to the calculation, the factors “women in leadership positions” and the economic goals are also taken into account; both goals were therefore exceeded. The goals are set by the DB Supervisory Board for the Executive Board, which then transfers them to the internal bonus recipients.
He had also set a lower target for the economic key figures in advance due to inflation and the high costs of investments in infrastructure. The loss is therefore lower than expected. The financial target is therefore considered to have been exceeded.
Personal goals are important
The personal goals of managers and non-tariff employees also determine the amount of the individual bonus. If these have been fully achieved, you will now be paid a profit share of 95.5% of the maximum value – that is more than in the previous year. This personal assessment is not taken into account for collective bargaining employees; they receive a flat rate so-called annual final benefit of 15 percent of their annual salary.
During the pandemic years, the bonuses for the tens of thousands of employees had been roughly halved – the targets had been significantly undercut and the board had made use of a “discretionary factor” that can adjust the payout by 20% downwards or upwards.
Bahn spokesman Achim Stauß emphasized that this discretion was intended for “extraordinary, unplanned events” – as was the case in the pandemic. “In the current situation, it would have been inappropriate to use this discretionary factor – even if we were in the red. That was mainly because we made a significant advance payment for the federal government in 2023. We wanted our employees to do this “Simply don’t punish employees.”
Criticism of this comes from the Green Bundestag member Gelbhaar, who also sits on the DB supervisory board. “If it’s a particularly difficult year, the balance sheet isn’t up to snuff, the punctuality figures aren’t good, customer satisfaction has fallen – the fact that this isn’t reflected at all in the discretion raises question marks.”
New Sustainability goal
The EVG, which is also represented on the supervisory board, did not want to comment when asked, as did Bundestag members Dorothee Martin (SPD) and Bernd Reuther (FPD), who sit on the supervisory board for the federal government.
The railway documents show: For the coming year, the railway’s performance in terms of punctuality, customer and employee satisfaction will play an even smaller role in the bonus payments. In 2024, these will only be included at 15 percent instead of 20 percent when calculating the profit sharing.
There is also a new sustainability goal that is weighted at 15 percent. Personal performance is even more important for some of the bonus recipients this year – at 25 percent instead of the previous 20 percent. However, individual goals can no longer be exceeded by up to 200 percent as before, but can instead be included in the calculation with a maximum of 150 percent.