If the Berlin CDU in the House of Representatives, together with the FDP, follows the suggestion of CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja, there could be a committee of inquiry into the events at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg in the Berlin Parliament.
From Czaja’s point of view, the dismissal of Patricia Schlesinger as director is not enough: “Apparently, the RBB leadership lived in a questionable system, a dangerous business culture. A committee of inquiry should clarify that,” Czaja told the Tagesspiegel. The House of Representatives would be the right place for this. Only a committee of inquiry could restore confidence in the broadcaster. At the request of 25 percent of MPs, Parliament is obliged to set up a committee of inquiry. In Berlin, the parliamentary groups of the CDU and FDP achieve this quorum.
In contrast to the House of Representatives, the Brandenburg state parliament has been dealing with the RBB affair for weeks. The Court of Auditors in Potsdam also wants to examine the controversial remuneration of the executive floor. SPD parliamentary group leader Daniel Keller said that the clarification process was still in its infancy and that the state parliament would critically monitor it.
Hagen Brandstätter, interim director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, announced in a special broadcast on RBB television on the current crisis of the broadcaster late Wednesday evening that he wanted to end the system of variable salary payments for senior employees. “We in the RBB management agree that this system of performance-related remuneration for executives no longer has a future.” The Board of Directors will examine the suspension of this system. “I dare to predict that it will not continue like this,” said Brandstätter and also explained that there would be no special payments this year.
On the same evening, the broadcaster disclosed the salaries of the directors on the RBB intranet, but not that of the director Patricia Schlesinger, who has since been recalled. The basic salary of the four managers at the top of the RBB is between 196,000 and 230,000 euros. The additional performance-related remuneration was between EUR 30,738 and EUR 39,195. Brandstäter received the highest salary and the largest bonus in his function as administrative director.
In addition, all directors received a travel allowance of 500 euros per month and an expense allowance of 250 euros per month. During the period of the ARD chairmanship of the RBB, a further 1700 euros were paid monthly.
The variable salary model does not exist in this form in any other ARD broadcaster. A distinction is made between the basic salary and a reduced basic salary. In order to achieve the base salary, certain individually defined targets must be met. If the targets are exceeded, bonuses are paid in addition to the base salary. Achieving certain savings targets can also be part of this. According to the RBB research association, RBB has paid out around 450,000 euros annually to directors, directors and department heads in recent years.
The bonus system was also the subject of a staff meeting on Thursday, in which the management tried to explain how performance-related pay works. “It is absolutely incomprehensible that it is not enough to earn as much as our directors or our main department heads in order to do the best for the station. Instead, a bonus system is needed to provide special motivation produce,” said one participant after the meeting, which lasted several hours. This may make sense in the private sector, but not in a public broadcaster.
The annoyance was expressed, among other things, in details such as the fact that the director received a full family supplement, while freelancers only received a reduced supplement. Or that the directors received a flat rate of 500 euros for travel expenses, while the travel regulation stipulates that the BVG ticket will be reimbursed.
The confidence of employees in management has been fundamentally shaken, as was also heard from other participants. “It is remarkable how persistent the call for a complete resignation of the management is,” it was reported. A signature campaign is running on the RBB intranet with a demand for the resignation of the management. Participation was high, it said. The management now describes itself as a “temporary administrator”, whose task is to hand over the RBB to the future directorship.
The RBB had realigned the remuneration of the executive floor with the help of a renowned management consultancy: The Kienbaum company billed the broadcaster 2017 for the “realignment of the target agreement system” in 2017 a sum of 28,000 euros. The first partial invoice is available from the daily mirror. The company demanded a total of 47,000 euros. In 2018, 3720 euros were added for a consultation on the new remuneration system. In May 2019, another 4460 euros – for one and a half days as a consultant, during which Kienbaum supported the broadcaster in checking whether the management had achieved its agreed goals. According to RBB, it was a total of 56,000 euros for the consulting firm.
The station itself now wants to prevent such explosive information from leaving its own house. On Thursday, a threat to whistleblowers in their own ranks, signed by editor-in-chief David Biesinger and compliance officer Anke Naujock-Simon, appeared on the company’s intranet: Even RBB’s own research team, which is dealing with the Schlesinger case, should not be sent any internal data . The disclosure of sensitive data could mean “a violation of the obligations arising from the employment contract or the employment relationship”. “This also includes the release of such data to investigative journalists, including those who work for RBB.” The station’s research team must also contact the station’s press office.
