Don't pay bonuses to tram workers – or bankers – just for doing their jobs

Published on Wednesday 29 April 2009 21:40

YOU report (28 April) almost £1 million has been paid in bonuses to tram workers, despite no track yet being laid. Bonus payments should apply only in cases of exceptional performance, not for carrying out a contract at agreed cost and over a fixed period, otherwise they constitute money for nothing. In the Edinburgh tram debacle, bonuses have obviously been built in at every stage, so it should be easy to identify such achievements so far.

Strathkelvin and Bearsden MSP David Whitton, a member of the Scottish Parliament's finance committee preparing a report on public sector pay, says they were astonished at the bonuses paid to chief executives of non-departmental public bodies for apparently just doing their jobs.

Rules on senior staff pay allow for salary reductions, but this has never happened, even where budgets have been cut and staff levels reduced. Scottish Water's chief executive can net an extraordinary 38 per cent of salary, under the usual guise of attracting "suitable" candidates in the face of superior terms offered by companies in England and Wales, but these are in the private sector.

Unbelievably, a spokesman for Edinburgh city council's tram company, TIE, justifies bonuses as applying especially to projects "with a clear end date".

ROBERT DOW

Ormiston Road

Tranent, East Lothian

There has been nothing but bad news about Edinburgh's tram project over the past week or two.

The Granton spur has now been officially cancelled – although it had been obvious for months that this had to happen. However, the official cancellation means that far too many millions have been spent on this hopeless cause. The scheme is well over time already and will doubtless be even worse by the time it draws to a weary finish.

It is well over budget and it is astonishing that TIE now has the audacity to claim that bonuses are to be paid. The rationale is claimed to be that this is in line "with modern HR strategies", the same sort of strategies that apparently are followed in the banking world – and look where it got them.

There are already protests from responsible sources and no wonder: TIE seems to be making up the rules as it goes along.

Can the city council be sure that there will actually be electricity available from the public supply by the finish date? There are frequently expressed doubts by government and power suppliers that we could be entering a difficult period. Have any safeguards been obtained from the power suppliers?

Now is the time to have a full reappraisal of the project, with consideration of the implications of stopping it immediately. I feel sure that there would be a lot of support for this from the voters, even if there will be a substantial loss over the piece, but possibly no more than it will be when the scheme eventually drags itself to a weary finale.

J R HALL

Colinton Grove

Edinburgh

Your headline says "Still no tram track but workers have 1m bonuses paid on time". When will our wonderful city council get a good lawyer to draw up contracts without loopholes and with penalty clauses for failing to meet completion dates?

JOSEPH P HENDERSON

Blackford Avenue

Edinburgh