It's worth being a member of the seven-member board of Deutsche Bahn AG: the bosses of the ailing state-owned company will receive a total of almost five million euros in bonuses for 2022.

There are generous basic salaries totaling four million euros for the board members last year, company cars for professional and private use, rental subsidies for second homes and other extras. But no one wants to miss out on the bonuses. Due to the electricity price cap introduced in 2022, they were not allowed to be paid out in the meantime because the state-owned company took advantage of the subsidy. With their cancellation, the bonuses will subsequently flow in full, as NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported on Monday.

Since bonuses are usually linked to particularly good performance, the question arose as to how the railway board justified the distribution. It's simple: The bosses define goals that can be easily achieved or exceeded, which compensate for the rather poor performance in the areas of route renovation, punctuality and customer satisfaction. In this way, each of the seven board members benefits from the well-filled bonus cornucopia. CEO Richard Lutz receives the largest share of this, around 1.3 million euros. Of this, he approved 384,000 euros for the “particularly satisfied” employees in 2022 and a higher proportion of female managers. This internal goal was only slightly exceeded, the three media reported. But the bonus for this area has increased significantly to 175 percent. All seven board members will benefit from the overachievement of the economic result for 2022, each with a double bonus. And each of them receives further extra payments for achieving individual goals. For example, for the railway boss, this is the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Berthold Huber, responsible for long-distance transport at Bahn AG, received a special bonus because he was able to have 284 ICE trains put into service ready for use instead of the minimum of 278. Ronald Pofalla (CDU), former head of the Chancellery under Angela Merkel, moved to the railway board eight years ago and, according to NDR, WDR and SZ, is said to have exceeded his task of maintaining the existing network in good quality by 200 percent. He has no longer been a member of the railway board since the end of April 2022.

However, how one can come to such assessments in view of regularly breaking power lines, dilapidated tracks and collapsing signaling technology remains the board's secret. Because they did not answer the request from NDR, WDR and SZ. But according to the internal documents that the research team was able to view, it is primarily the calculation bases that help every board member to receive the generous bonuses. If goals such as customer satisfaction and punctuality are not achieved, employee satisfaction, the number of ICE trains provided or increasing the proportion of female managers take effect. So it doesn't matter to the management team that they claim zero percent target achievement in terms of punctuality and customer satisfaction. In 2022, the satisfaction of passengers and clients for freight transport was far from the company's own targets - most notably in long-distance transport, where the target was missed by more than six percent.

The compensation system for the railway board is to be changed next year. The decision must be made by the supervisory board of Bahn AG, which includes state secretaries from the federal ministries of finance, economics and transport. Allegedly, the board members will receive a higher proportion of their remuneration as a fixed salary in the future. The bonus portion is to be reduced from around two thirds of the salary to fifty percent. However, the company did not want to comment on this when asked.

The revelations are also explosive against the background of the ongoing GDL labor dispute at the railway. Union boss Claus Weselsky had already criticized the DB bosses on Friday, who "serve themselves millions in salaries and offer employees to tighten their belts."