Bonuses are fine. Everyone gets bonuses for performance. If they get them for screwing up, its the fault of the person writing the contract.
People are missing the point completely, these salary packages and bonuses are set by the market.
Top executives can, to some extent, name their own price and regardless of company performance.
It’s like a top International footballer going to say Arsenal, where things are currently going a bit tits up, that footballer doesn’t have to pay the price of failure, even if he is playing crap.
Salaries are largely all based on skill, experience, reputation and the consequent market value.
There’s no law that says if RBS goes tits up he shouldn’t get paid and that goes for any employee.
No, the tail is now wagging the dog it’s exactly the same as the football chairman picking the team over the manager’s head.
Labour, to their credit when bailing out RBS, decided that the government would not get involved they would not be active shareholders.
They decided this based on the previous experience of Old Labour walking all over our nationalised industries in the 1970s, with their union cohorts in tow. With the inevitable result that those industries turned into basket cases, losing money faster than we could print the stuff.
Now Labour, in opposition and playing to the populist gallery, have disgracefully reneged on that deal, knowing full well that the likely consequence of them getting their way is that they are almost certainly pissing all our RBS tax bailout up the wall.
Complaining about RBS bonuses, we just did all our money in, RBS will now become the next British Leyland and Labour don’t give a crap because burning all our money, for their own short term political gain, is what they do best.
I don’t know about you but I would rather have had my money back and, based on his track record, this was certainly the man to do it.
It now only remains to be seen how long it is before Hester and his team resigns.
They are being asked to put their reputations on the line whilst it is clear that the interference, not just on bonuses, is coming thick and fast – that situation won’t last long.
Then, when they go, no one worthy will touch the job, it will be just like Chelsea after the Special One left.
No matter how much money is thrown around at Chelsea, Abramovich just can’t get the best managers anymore because none of them will go there when they know he will interfere all the time.