Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Lending money

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #2
    Lending money

    I've got no problem with Northern Rock paying its contact centre staff a 10% bonus, as long as (as the article implies) no senior bosses or management are getting a penny. The staff on the "shop floor" have probably been working their arses off this year, facing down irate customers, and as their basic pay is shit to begin with, they deserve their bonus.

    It's the big fat cats on £2m a year at the top of failing organisations like this who should not only be sacked, but should actually be prosecuted, Enron-style, by the bank's new owners (us) for fraud, inasmuch as they were clearly taking huge salaries and bonuses under false pretences. I wouldn't necessarily jail any of them for being completely shit at what they claimed to be good at, but a good old-fashined criminal conviction will at least allow the courts to reclaim their assets to compensate the victims of their incompetence.

    Comment


      #3
      Lending money

      "This is bringing the worst of the City bonus culture into a public body."
      Bollocks is it.

      He also stressed that no executives or senior management would benefit.

      The reward comes after staff met targets on repaying the bank's £26bn loan from the government.
      Ordinary staff get rewarded for excellent work in extremely hard and low-morale circumstances. The bank needed to be kept afloat, kept running, and it was. Brown's spokesman is quite right in calling how it is kept running "a matter for Northern Rock" - and that is quite correct as long as its practices do not again endager people's savings or the national economy. That would be the case even if the bonus were a chummy backslapping handouts to the suits and execs.

      But it isn't. It's an admirable move, and one that far more large corporations should emulate.

      Comment


        #4
        Lending money

        Having worked for a Building Society for seven years and known people who've worked at other (including Northern Rock both before and after demutualisation), it's not a well paid industry. Most of the admin staff will start on minimum wage, and won't have much opportunity to earn more than an extra £1-2k a year. Most of them have toothless in-house Staff Associations rather than unions negotiating annual payrises.

        The staff, especially those in the branches, will have had to put up with a lot of shit the last 12 months, and will have been worked off their feet, when the problems the NR first surfaced.

        Also, we have no knowledge of what payrises the staff recieved last year, and what they could get next year. It could be that they got nothing this year, and this is instead of a rise next year - and in the long run, a 10% bonus is not as good as a 10% payrise.

        Comment


          #5
          Lending money

          I don't see what the problem with this is? Executives getting bonuses would be unforgivable, but this almost seems positive.

          Comment


            #6
            Lending money

            I've got to stop agreeing with Simon Jenkins so often. Worrying me, it is.
            http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/21/treasury-banking-keynes-demand

            Comment


              #7
              Lending money

              I thought Vince Cable was the man that was supposed to be the parliament expert on the economy? This statement is just bollocks.

              "This is bringing the worst of the City bonus culture into a public body."
              Wasn't he deemed a guru because he predicted that this was going to happen? I was working in the insolvency and litigation department of a finance company five years ago - I could have told you that this was going to happen, and I'm a fucking idiot.

              Comment


                #8
                Lending money

                Responding to the original question ... yes ... currently ... and it's very disappointing.

                Comment

                Working...
                X