Jail term for VW boss after emission scandal

Since the VW emissions scandal broke in September 2015, observers have been wondering if any of the company’s executives would face jail time for their involvement in the massive fraud.

At the end of last year, Oliver Schmidt was sentenced at a court in Detroit to seven years in jail and a $400,000 fine.

Oliver Schmidt, a German national, played a key role at VW’s engineering office in Michigan. As the head of the environmental compliance team, Schmidt knew that Volkswagen vehicles did not comply to US environmental standards, and that VW was using computer trickery to fool investigators. Schmidt actively misled US investigators and is accused of destroying incriminating documents.

Before receiving his sentence, Schmidt acknowledged his complicity. “I only have myself to blame,” he said, “I made bad decisions and for that I am sorry.”

About the VW scandal

The VW emissions scandal emerged in 2015, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered software in VW cars designed to make the cars seem less polluting. The software detected when the cars were being tested, and then switched the engines into an alternative mode that produced fewer emissions. With this method, VW were able to make investigators believe that diesel VW cars operated within limits set by the Clean Air Act.

This means that VW engines were emitting nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times beyond the quantity allowed by US law.

Learning from VW

Volkswagen’s fraud has cost the company billions, lost them decades of goodwill, demolished trust and lead to resignations, recriminations and now, for Oliver Schmidt, jail time. The total cost of the scandal is difficult to determine because it is so vast, and because some effects will not be fully realised in the short term. Only time will tell how badly this incident affects VW.

What happened at VW is a reminder of how bad decisions at one level can ripple up through an organisation. Even though VW employees are reported to have warned against the fraud before it became company practice, the warnings were not heeded. The executives that gave the green light to the scam were blinded by the bucks; all they could see was the immense earning potential of their supposedly low-emission diesel cars. Profits were prioritised over ethical, environmental and legal concerns.

This highlights a key challenge for all organisations; how do we put compliance and lawfulness above profit? How do we ensure an ethical corporate culture, even when the temptation to cheat is so great?

At VinciWorks, we create eLearning programmes on a range of compliance topics, including Environmental Awareness, Code of Conduct, Competition Law, and Treating Customers Fairly. Because our training is online, it can be easily delivered to all personnel, wherever they are based. VinciWorks training is a practical solution to manage your compliance training requirements. Contact our team to learn more about our eLearning.

Your legal obligation to give employees health and safety training

Did you know that, as an employer, you have a legal duty to give employees health and safety training that covers all the risks they face at work?

Many recent health and safety breaches (and several massive fines) suggest that employers are frequently failing to properly comply with this requirement. Time after time, investigators find that employee training is inadequate, out of date, or just never delivered. Gaps in training lead to accidents, life-changing injuries, and even death.

The ‘Health and Safety at Work Act’ defines employers’ responsibilities when it comes to training, stating that employers must provide “such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is practicable, the health and safety at work of their employees”.

As you can see, this is a potentially wide-ranging requirement, depending on the nature of your employees’ work. The onus is on employers to evaluate the risks faced by employees, and then provide suitable training.

What does good health and safety training look like? This depends on the job, but general principles of good practice include:

Informative and practical. Help employees know how to work safely. Classroom sessions may not be the most effective and efficient way to drive home important messages about safety.

Contribute to a culture of safe and healthy working. Safe working should be the default mode. It may be helpful to focus on training line managers so that health and safety is valued by everyone in your organisation from the top down.

Comprehensive. Training should cover all the key risks to health and safety that your employees face.

Bespoke. It’s no good having off-the-shelf training if it doesn’t cover all the risks in your workplace.

Monitored. Health and safety training is not a one-off project. It should be part of a wider health and safety system. Training should be topped up periodically, revised over time and reviewed to ensure any new risks are covered.

For all. Your health and safety training should cover apprentices, trainees, self-employed contractors and work experience visitors.

Reviewed. Don’t just deliver training. Make sure it has worked. Monitor employees at work and check that safety practices are being adhered to.

As you can see, health and safety training should not be a box-ticking exercise. Unless you want to take risks with your employees’ health, and possibly incur a crippling fine.

Training should never be just about avoiding accidents and preventing harm. By caring for your employees, you can reduce workplace stress while demonstrating to your teams that everyone is valued and supported.

Talk to VinciWorks about creating bespoke health and safety training for your people. Our training is online, making it easy to provide to your employees wherever they work.