Volkswagen chairman eyes job rotation

Volkswagen said only a small group of employees were responsible for the cheating incidents and there is no indication that board members were involved

Volkswagen plans to limit the time staff can remain in certain roles, its supervisory board chairman told a German weekly, in a step to improve oversight at the German carmaker.

Volkswagen said in September it had cheated US emissions tests and installed software capable of deceiving regulators, wiping billions of euros off its market value and forcing out its long-standing chief executive.

“We are planning a rotation principle for certain functions. The employees concerned will spend only a limited time in certain positions before moving on,” Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch told Welt am Sonntag in an interview.

Earlier this month, the carmaker said only a small group of employees was responsible for the incidents and there was no indication board members were involved in what has become the biggest business crisis in Volkswagen’s history.

It said then that future engine software would be developed “with a four-eye principle.”

Chairman Poetsch told Welt am Sonntag that increasing job rotations would pose a challenge due to the high complexity of some of the roles, but said Volkswagen could draw on the expertise of employees across the group.

“It’s easier said than done. There are few employees that are able to programme an engine control unit. But we have these people across the different brands. For example, experts at Audi could switch to Porsche and from Porsche to Volkswagen and so on,” Poetsch was quoted as saying.