Payback on bonuses?
NORTH-EAST housebuilder Bellway, which has several schemes across Tees Valley, has lost a shareholder vote over its controversial payment of more than £630,000 in bonuses to executives.
Today we ask Should the three Bellway directors pay them back?”
Around 58% of participating shareholders voted down the company’s remuneration report amid anger that Bellway had ditched previous performance targets to pay bonuses of £632,500 to the top three directors - 55% of their combined annual salaries - in the year to July 31.
Pre-tax profits plunged 30% to £165.7m over the same period.
The company had justified the payout as reward for “very good” management in particularly difficult times, but it told shareholders it had been wrong not to consult with investors.
Alan Lisle, director of recruitment firm New Group, a supplier of staff to Teesport, said “fat cat” bonuses stood out starkly when just keeping a job was the priority for most workers. He said redundant workers were already trading down in search of income.
“We have seen skilled workers on £16 an hour take semi-skilled jobs on £12 an hour,” he said.
The official unemployment total reached a ten-year high of 1.86m last October and some analysts expect it to increase to two million when new figures are published on Wednesday.
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