Status: 08.17.2022 00:12
the top management of rbb has insisted since the resignation of artistic director Schlesinger that the network does not pay any bonuses. Internal documents now show that this representation is not sustainable.
By René Althammer, Jo Goll, Daniel Laufer, Oliver Noffke and Gabi Probst, rbb
The salaries of the rbb director and directors are significantly higher than previously known. The numbers released by the broadcaster on the rbb website so far do not correspond to actual revenue.
rbb states on its website that it paid 21,750 euros gross monthly to Patricia Schlesinger in 2020. rbb refers to this as “basic pay”. The following year, Schlesinger’s salary was increased by 16% – to more than 25,000 euros a month. This results in the 303,000 euros appearing on the pages of ARD as the salary of the rbb director and has been repeatedly quoted in the press for several weeks.
Apparently, this is just the so-called “base salary”. Therefore, it does not contain any bonus payments, nor does it correspond to the full salary, as one might suppose.
New documents now show that such bonus payments exist. The online portal “Business Insider” reported this for the first time. According to information from the research team at rbb, rbb paid a five-figure sum to a consultancy to develop a sophisticated bonus system.
Brandenburg state parliament hearing on Schlesinger case gives few answers
Griet von Petersdorff, RBB, daily topics 22:45, 16 Aug 2022
Base Salary or Base Salary?
Internally, rbb distinguishes between “base salary” (100% as per contract) and “base salary” for board members (director plus four directors). This “base salary” is 8.33% lower than the “base salary” and is paid monthly.
The deficit of 8.33 percent is initially retained and is associated with the achievement of personalized goals by the respective employees. If they fail to meet these targets, the base salary – incomplete – remains. Interested parties are “punished” for non-compliance. This is called the malus system.
But if this case has happened in recent years, rbb doesn’t want to answer when asked.
On the other hand, if the management team members reached their goals, they receive a 20% bonus. Those who “significantly exceeded” their targets can even count on 25%. The reduced “base salary” is used as the basis of calculation.
Complicated but profitable
An example should better explain this complicated construction: a “basic salary” (100%) of 200,000 euros is agreed with a member of the board of directors. In addition, certain objectives are defined that must be achieved in the area of the person in question. Until these targets are reviewed, a reduced “base salary” will be paid (base salary minus 8.33%).
In this case, it would be 183,340 euros per year. If the review establishes that all agreed targets have been met, there is a “success-related” payment of 20% (EUR 36,668) and an additional payment of the 8.33% retained (EUR 16,660). In the end, the total of fixed and variable salary components would be 236,668 euros gross.
Even if the agreed goals are only “approximately met”, a 15 percent surcharge beckons. The reduced basic salary would therefore be increased. And that would be above the contractually agreed base salary. If, however, it is found during the review that the agreed targets are “significantly exceeded”, a 25% surcharge beckons – again based on the reduced “basic salary”.
System change under Schlesinger
Previously, only a few senior employees – known internally as key department heads – had the option of receiving additional performance-related salary components.
This salary system was expanded under Patricia Schlesinger. Management consultancy Kienbaum saw a need for correction here, as it noted in a December 2017 presentation. rbb tasked consultants with extending the existing variable compensation system for “top department heads to director and director level” .
In the concept proposal “Reorientation of the system of agreement of goals of the management and of the AT executives”, the management consultants describe two new approaches. The one described above for the top floor and a second one for middle management: the main department heads mentioned.
According to management consultants, financial incentives did not have a particularly motivating effect until 2017: “Bonus amounts are sometimes considered to have an incentive effect, but tend to be considered very low (‘Higher would trigger incentives stronger’)”. The Kienbaum company billed rbb nearly 56,000 euros for its advice at the time.
Variable salary components, related to performance or simply: bonuses?
In mid-January 2018, the revised salary model for senior employees was approved by the director and her directors. What was determined at this meeting basically corresponds to what was recommended by the management consultancy Kienbaum.
At the same time, it was discussed that the salaries of top department heads – that is, middle management – should be increased by up to 7.5%. Finally, it is necessary to take into account the “provisional tariff increases”, it says in the explanation. In addition, the model allowed an increase of 10 or 15% per year, depending on the grouping.
A few days after this meeting, the new system was presented to the Board of Directors. The body that was supposed to control the management and was led by Wolf-Dieter Wolf until recently.
Since then, rbb has paid at least around 450,000 euros a year to directors, directors and department heads. rbb does not want to confirm these values when asked.
Five-letter variable special payment
What the rbb management decided basically corresponds to what was previously proposed by the Kienbaum company. There are only differences in the details. While management consultants use the term “bonus”, the draft resolution for directors uses the term “performance-based compensation component”.
rbb editor-in-chief David Biesinger also said on August 10 on rbb24’s nightly show: “I don’t get any bonuses.” This is a major misunderstanding in reporting, Biesinger continued. “There are performance-related salary components at rbb for executives above a certain level of managerial responsibility. […], part of my salary and that of other management colleagues is guaranteed. Another part only if the objectives […] also be achieved. And this is unlike any random bonus.”
Hagen Brandstätter, former deputy director and current administrative successor to Schlesinger, said Tuesday at the Brandenburg state parliament that there was no bonus system within the rbb.
Another manager who is paid under this system but would like to remain anonymous made it clear in an interview with the rbb research team: “That was a bonus.”
For employment lawyers, it is irrelevant whether the additional salary components are designated as bonuses, commissions, special payments, performance pay or bonuses. All of these terms basically mean the same thing: payments in addition to a base salary and tied to agreed terms.
What goals had to be achieved for bonuses?
Bonus targets for beneficiaries were created individually. Usually along with their superiors, they say. What that means in the director’s case remains unclear. Who set your personal goals? Who verified that these were achieved? How was this handled with the four directors? The rbb is silent, for labor issues, as they say.
On the other hand, it seems clear that there were definitely differences in middle management when it came to achieving individual goals. Some bonuses could apparently only be achieved with an extremely large amount of work. “I should have won the gold medal in the 100 meters and the high jump at the same time,” says another executive, who also declined to be identified.
On the other hand, some target agreements appear to be congruent with parts of the normal scope of functions of the data subjects.
Unique within the ARD
No other ARD station has a similar pay model. WDR director Tom Buhrow recently announced that a survey of all ARD stations revealed that only rbb had promised its top executives such payments.
Until recently, this practice was largely unknown among the workforce. During a digital work meeting the day after Schlesinger’s resignation, program director Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus was asked by staff about relevant news stories. After he confirmed that the station’s management would be paid accordingly, there was a barrage of angry speeches.
A few hours later, the Schulte-Kellinghaus program director was asked on rbb24’s evening program if there were any bonuses for meeting savings targets, such as staff cuts. “Yes, of course,” said the program director. “Even for budget requirements.”