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Fury at German rail boss payouts
Allan Hall28 Oct 2008
The bosses of German Railways secretly decided to award themselves multi-million-pound bonuses after the company was floated on the stock exchange.
However, the float was called off because of the global financial meltdown and now the board of Deutsche Bahn is embarrassed by the planned "fat-cat" payouts.
The board decided on the bonuses in June, but details emerged only recently when a whistleblower told Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee.
The federal government suspended flotation of 25% of the company earlier this month, fearing the the share price would be savaged .
Tiefensee is said to be furious Deutsche Bahn plans to make the payout even if listing its freight and logistics arms yields only €3 billion (£2.4 billion) instead of a hoped-for €5 billion-£8 billion.
"It simply cannot happen that we reward the heads of our own companies for wasting federal money," said Otto Fricke of the opposition liberal FDP.
