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Network Rail bosses to get £1.2m in bonuses

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8120864.stm

Now I wasn't raving about the RMT action just gone, but lets put things in context - recession, underperforming and waste - yet the bottomless well of remuneration is still in working order, for a select few.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    And to think i pay almost 15 quid to get to london and most of the time i have to stand all the way there! BASTIDS
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm in two minds about it. There is no denying that bonuses this big are grotesque - imagine how much of a real difference that money could make to some people. Those trapped in debt cycles, those with dependents who have found themselves redundant, and so on.

    However, if any one of us was the boss of a company and negotiated with the owners (or shareholders) that our remuneration wouldn't just be a flatout wage, but we would get a bonus - say 1% of profits - then if under your management the business does make a profit and meets that pre-arranged target, we would demand our rightful remuneration. Imagine working in telesales, your boss telling you "if you make over 200 sales today, I'll give you £100 bonus", then you make 200 sales and then the boss turns round and says "sorry, but its not really fair to give you £100 when some people have nothing". This would be the case even if you made 200 sales and had 10 customer complaints - you would say to your boss rightly that the agreement never ever stipulated a single thing amount customer complaints.

    You'd take them to the unions wouldn't you? Whether what managers receive is the same as what managers deserve is a different question - I am of the opinion and I have stated this before that our economy runs on the exploitation of the people below you - you never ever pay them what they're worth and so the higher up the chain you are the more income you siphon of other people. But, that doesn't account for the fact that it's a free market and indeed a free country, and if the price of the best skilled managers is a big cheque than fair play.

    Realise also that under perfect circumstances, instead of bonuses the 'free market' wage for top top managers would be higher, but the problem is lack of accoutability - there is no reason for a manager to maximise profit and potentially risk his job if he just gets a flat rate income. So they might only give him half as ordinary wages like the rest of us, and the rest becomes incentivised.

    The article even says despite the issues, "Pre-tax profit fell to £1.52bn in the period to 31 March" - profit of £1.52bn is still profit of £1.52bn and suddenly £1.2m in bonuses to the managers who facilitated this seems like a price worth paying.
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