Virgin Media bonus plan angers unions

Published on Monday 13 April 2009 21:21

CABLE group Virgin Media has angered unions with plans to award bonuses to its executives just months after axing more than 2,000 jobs, reports yesterday claimed.

The group has approved plans to pay bonuses worth between 5 per cent and 100 per cent of base salary to some staff dependent on qualifying criteria.

Virgin Media, which released details of the move in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said last November that it planned to cut about 2,200 UK jobs – or 15 per cent of its workforce – by 2012 in a broad restructuring scheme.

Trade unions attacked the move and called for the firm's bosses to reconsider. Grace Mitchell, of the Communication Workers Union, said: "At a time when people are losing their jobs and there is a lot of uncertainty, the executives should be taking a lead and looking to forgo these bonuses."

The redundancies are part of a plan to slash costs across the group to save more than 120 million by 2012. A Virgin Media spokesman said both the 2009 bonus plan and the firm's restructuring were "integral" parts of its aim to "radically transform the business".

"We will make sure we have a competitive, performance-related compensation package that rewards success and reflects the extent of our ambitions."