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VW offers employees amnesty for information on cheating

Volkswagen brand chief Herbert Diess has stated that the company is encouraging its workers to get in touch with internal investigators. However, depending on the information provided, employees might be transferred to another department.

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The offer is valid until November 30 and only applies to workers covered by collective bargaining agreements. He also promised that any employee who will come forward would be granted amnesty.

The German auto giant was plunged into the biggest crisis in its history after revealing that it had fitted 11 million of its diesel vehicles with software created to cheat official pollution tests. “It’s a tacit admission, however, that the usual reporting channels have been ineffective”.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Volkswagen equipped 482,000 cars with software that turned off emissions controls and enhanced performance when the cars were not being tested.

By setting a tight deadline, Volkswagen is evidently trying to pressure those with knowledge to speak soon.

“Every single day counts”, Diess wrote.

Volkswagen previously had an internal ombudsman’s office that employees could go to with concerns.

“But even if I take 100 out of (a global workforce of) 600,000, it remains a limited group”, he added.

In a letter sent to IBAMA on October 22, the German carmaker said that all the 2011 Amarok vehicles and part of the 2012 models that had been sold in Brazil had the same problem found by American authorities.

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The 68-year-old Winterkorn was forced to resign as VW group chief executive by the carmaker’s influential labor leaders and the state of Lower Saxony, VW’s No. 2 shareholder, on September 23, five days after the company’s rigging of diesel emissions tests became public in the United States.

The Volkswagen Scandal