Volkswagen Preparing for Mass Firings

Volkswagen Group intends to fire a group of employees implicated in the diesel emissions fraud scandal. German prosecutors in Brunswick have identified an inner circle of 39 “suspicious engineers” it believes contributed directly to the emissions cheating. It’s expected that VW will carry out these terminations as quickly as possible, with additional waves of firings to follow.

According to Handelsblatt, Volkswagen made the decision to cleanse its ranks after being granted access to the prosecution’s investigation files in July. The automaker followed up with a series of employee “interviews” and a month-long review process. VW has already announced the dismissal of six high-ranking employees, with former development head Heinz-Jakob Neußer (Neusser) being the most noteworthy.

Neußer, already wanted by the U.S. Justice Department for corporate fraud, was suspended from work in Germany in 2015.

In an interview with Handelsblatt, VW CEO Herbert Diess said the dismissals would only affect a handful of people for the time being. He also confirmed that the terminations are going through now that the automaker has been able to examine the prosecutors’ investigative documents.

Those files also alleged that Diess was informed of the existence of cheating software two months before U.S. regulators finally blew the whistle. The United States previously agreed to give him safe passage earlier this year, possibly hoping that he would testify against former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn. No charges have been filed against Diess, but he is now under increased scrutiny in Germany.

VW continues to maintain that the management board did not violate its disclosure duties or act illegally when it decided not to inform investors about the emissions issue. The company’s excuse is that upper management failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation and had no way of knowing the full scope of potential fines and legal ramifications.

(Note: The previous headline, which contained the prefix “Line ’em Up,” was changed to appease a group of tone-policing auto journalists who congregated on Twitter to express their outrage, despite the fact that no readers saw a problem with it. So, to defuse this growing mob of professionals who believe we were making a Holocaust joke because the story involves Germans (we weren’t, and wouldn’t), the headline underwent surgery. We apologise for causing any offense, real or forced. – Associate Ed.)

[Image: Volkswagen]