£1.6m bonus for Abbey chief after job cuts

Published on Friday 14 July 2006 12:26

THE chief executive of banking group Abbey has scooped a £1.67 million performance bonus - after a year in which he cut 4000 jobs, including dozens in Glasgow.

Francisco Gomez-Roldan pocketed three times as much as his predecessor Luqman Arnold, who banked a performance-related bonus of 550,167 in 2004.

Mr Gomez-Roldan, who earns around 57,000 a week, was appointed at the end of 2004 following Abbey's takeover by Spanish giant Banco Santander.

Santander's annual report showed that 2005 boardroom pay soared at the same time as staff were cut from 24,361 to 20,642 between December 2004 and December 2005.

Mr Gomez-Roldan's wages came to almost 3m, whilst directors' pay totalled 11.6m, including 7m in salaries and fees and 4.5m in performance-related payments.

Linda Rolph, general secretary of the Abbey National Group Union, said: "It's disappointing when our members are being asked to make many sacrifices to find out that these cost savings do not extend to the top of the organisation."

Ms Rolph pointed out last year that Mr Gomez-Roldan earned nearly as much in a day as a junior Abbey cashier did in a year.

In 2005 dozens of staff were axed from Abbey's 3000-strong Glasgow office, including 50 IT redundancies and cuts in media relations and marketing.

A spokesman for Abbey would only confirm that Mr Gomez-Roldan was the company's highest-paid director last year.