 |
salary fluctuations and general social welfare questions, for
orientation of the Vorstand members interested in these questions.
DR.
DIX: I want to make one remark with regard to the translation, to avoid any
misunderstanding. The translation of “social policy” is correct; one
could as well say “social welfare.”
Q. To what extent was it
customary in Farben, within the regulation of the law that I read to you, for
you to give directives and instructions?
A. According to the law, I had
to issue directives insofar as my predecessor and I had reserved the right to
do this, and to the extent that this corresponded with practice and the rule in
Farben.
Q. These were in the fields that you have sketched?
A.
Yes.
Q. In what fields did you not give these directives?
A. In
the field of state social welfare policy.
Q. What did that include?
A. State social insurance, local salary and wage rate questions, the
general working conditions as set forth in the local plant regulations, and
above all the hiring and employment of workers.
Q. Who was competent
for that?
A. The local plant leader was responsible for that.
Q. What is the reason for this regulation?
A. This plant
leader, who worked in the plant and who was familiar with it, was, according to
the law regulating national labor, to have the principal responsibility for
local conditions. Agreement had been achieved on this in Farben always.
Q. What is the reason that in the fields of state social welfare, for
instance labor commitment, you did not issue any directives? What is the deeper
reason for that?
A. Because these things were set down and managed by
the local and provincial state authorities, such as for instance the insurance
agencies, the trustee of labor, the regional labor offices, and the local labor
offices. The entire enterprise of Farben — and therefore I — could
not intervene at all in these local conditions.
Q. This practice
existed earlier, didn’t it?
A. Yes, this condition was already in
existence when I became main plant leader.
Q. That was before the war.
Perhaps the reasons were somewhat different?
A. No, not at all. Nothing
changed in these things when the war broke out.
Q. If you learned,
however, Dr. Schneider, that in some field of social welfare something was not
quite in order, what did you then have to do? |
721 |
. 
