Britain’s big five banks are determined to reward their chief executives with generous bonuses for 2010. HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Standard Chartered insist they will press ahead with bonus pay-outs. Veiled threats before Christmas, both from Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister, and Vince Cable, business secretary, that the government could impose restraint on pay-outs, possibly through the reintroduction of a bonus tax, have come to nothing.
“We don’t want to see a repeat of last year when no one felt able to take their bonuses,” said one senior banker.
New UK and European rules restricting cash bonuses, however, have led many institutions to raise bankers’ salaries, reducing their employees’ reliance on big, one-off incentive payments – but simultaneously reducing institutional flexibility on costs. HSBC recently doubled the basic pay of hundreds of senior staff in its investment banking division, while Barclays Capital has also moved to increase fixed salaries significantly.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "With £7 billion about to be shovelled over in bonuses to the bankers, there will be anger on the streets as people realise that the same people who created the UK financial crisis are still living in the lap of luxury while the rest of us are told to take the hit..." He explained: "So much for sharing the pain. My advice to any worker told they should take a pay freeze or a pay cut this year is to point to the bankers, stand firm and demand a fair deal. That is exactly what RMT will be doing. Our members didn't create this crisis and those that did are laughing all the way to the bank. We intend to continue to fight for pay deals that protect and improve our members' standards of living and we will take no lectures about austerity from the Government or the employers while the boardrooms and bordellos of the City are awash with our cash."
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