Last week GM CEO Mary Barra admitted that nobody at GM had been fired over the simply massive ignition switch recall. But now GM has announced that two engineers have been placed on paid leave and that it was a "difficult decision." And it appears one of them is the Cobalt and Cruze's engineering manager.
The decision came as a result of Anton Valukas's independent investigation into what exactly led to the negligence that now has 2.6 million GM cars recalled, at least 12 deaths related to the ignition switches, and GM at the center of a firestorm of criticism from the public and government alike, not to mention NHTSA, who are super pissed. Things like why it took 13 years to start a recall for a defect that was noticed in 2001 and why the new ignition switches that weren't defective had the same part number as the old ones are at the top of the gripe list.
Bloomberg is reporting that the suspended engineers are Ray DeGiorgio and Gary Altman. DeGiorgio is the engineer that had been accused of lying under oath during a deposition made by a crash victim. Altman was an engineering manager on both the Cobalt and Cruze.
CEO Barra says that this is "an interim step as we seek the truth about what happened. It was a difficult decision, but I believe it is best for GM."
Yesterday at a town hall meeting, Barra announced an internal safety campaign that will recognize employees who speak up when they think that there's a safety issue and that the Global Vehicle Safety Group will be accountable to make sure that the problem is fixed in a set amount of time.
Will there be more suspensions? Are these two unnamed engineers the fall guys?