The board members of Deutsche Bahn will not receive any bonuses for 2023, but will receive six or seven-figure sums for 2022. In the future, payments should be based more closely on long-term goals.
Unpunctuality, a wave of strikes, train cancellations – the board members of the heavily indebted Deutsche Bahn should still receive high bonus payments. They were massively criticized for this last year. Now the company is reacting. The board members will not receive any bonus payments for 2023.
“Deutsche Bahn has received more than 50 million euros from the federal government for 2023 from the electricity price brake. There will therefore be no bonuses for 2023,” said Martin Burkert, deputy chairman of the DB supervisory board and head of the railway and transport union EVG, to Deutsche Press agency. In addition to the group board, all boards of DB Regio, DB Fernverkehr and DB Cargo are also affected. The bonuses would be paid for 2022.
1.26 million euros for CEO
According to the annual report for 2022, Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz will receive a bonus of more than 1.26 million euros. Infrastructure director Berthold Huber will receive 699,000 euros in “variable remuneration”, as the bonus is called at the railway.
Human resources director Martin Seiler, who is currently negotiating new collective agreements with the train drivers’ union GDL, will receive an additional 736,000 euros. According to EVG boss Burkert, the bonuses for 2023 would have been similarly high.
According to Burkert, the bonuses will be lower in the future because the calculation will be changed. According to the EVG boss, payments for achieving short-term goals will account for 20 percent of the total bonuses in the future. The much larger part for achieving long-term goals will only be paid out every four years.
Punctuality, quality and Operating result as goals
The general goals include, among other things, punctuality, quality and the operating result of the railway. Individual goals would also be set for each board. “In order to achieve 100 percent of the target, HR director Seiler must, among other things, ensure that 86 percent of all trainees graduate,” said Burkert. Most recently the rate was 85 percent.
According to Burkert, the board member responsible for long-distance transport, Michael Peterson, not only has to ensure that the trains are on the tracks for his variable remuneration. The DB offering should also meet quality requirements. Specifically, for example, the toilets and air conditioning systems would also have to work.