EBS building soc workers want annual Xmas bonus

gigino · 08-12-2011 11:46AM #1

"The EBS will offer staff loans to compensate them for non-payment of a traditional Christmas payment worth a month's salary."

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1207/ebs-business.html

Given that salaries in the EBS have been reduced - one poor man who works there only gets € 380,000 per year now,http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1117/ebs.html
I am sure they are all feeling the squeeze.

The State is injecting €2.4 billion into EBS. Should'nt we inject a few extra bob in and give them a bonus - say round that poor lads salary up to 400k a year ? Think of the good work they done during the boom, helping people get on the property ladder and sometimes loaning people over ten times their salary.

Celly Smunt · 08-12-2011 11:49AM

gigino wrote: »

"The EBS will offer staff loans to compensate them for non-payment of a traditional Christmas payment worth a month's salary."

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1207/ebs-business.html

Given that salaries in the EBS have been reduced - one poor man who works there only gets € 380,000 per year now,http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1117/ebs.html
I am sure they are all feeling the squeeze.

The State is injecting €2.4 billion into EBS. Should'nt we inject a few extra bob in and give them a bonus - say round that poor lads salary up to 400k a year ? Think of the good work they done during the boom, sometimes loaning people over ten times their salary so they could get on the property ladder.

I had an argument,but i don't really care anymore.

MagicSean · 08-12-2011 12:20PM

Trolling the world again gigino?

The only people who aren't receiving the bonus are the lowest paid workers. Management are all getting it still.

AnonoBoy · 08-12-2011 12:26PM

Sure we have to have electricity like, y'know?

melekalikimaka · 08-12-2011 12:30PM

gigino, i hope you get no bonus this year

Morag · 08-12-2011 12:31PM

EBs the building soc not the ESB.

The bottom tier of staff 1 week before payday and 2 weeks before christmas got told they were not getting the bonus but all the managers are. They have gotten it every past year going back 11 years and to have it landed on them at such short notice when most of them were going to pay for christmas out of it is sniveling, mean and underhanded.

bleg · 08-12-2011 12:39PM

None of them should get bonuses. If management have gotten bonuses it should come out of their pay packet for next year.

gigino · 08-12-2011 12:52PM

melekalikimaka wrote: »

gigino, i hope you get no bonus this year

I never got a Christmas bonus equivalent to one months salary. In fact very few people in the country ever had the taxpayer giving them a months bonus at Christmas time.

But I do feel sorry for the likes of poor Mr. Fitzpatrick of Anglo Irish bank , Fingers of Irish Nationwide building society ( with his 20 million pension pot ) and the poor EBS building society workers. As I say, think of the poor family and kids. If someone who has helped fuel the property boom here during the tiger era has his salary reduced to only € 380,000 a year , a months bonus should be paid. The government could find the money from disabled kids allowances or someone.

TheZohanS · 08-12-2011 01:03PM

Whilst I can empathise with the workers I certainly don't have any sympathy for them.

ejmaztec · 08-12-2011 01:09PM

There will be thousands of people rioting outside the ESB headquarters, screaming "bastards!" and heaving bricks through the windows.

starbelgrade · 08-12-2011 01:15PM

Sharrow wrote: »

The bottom tier of staff 1 week before payday and 2 weeks before christmas got told they were not getting the bonus but all the managers are. They have gotten it every past year going back 11 years and to have it landed on them at such short notice when most of them were going to pay for christmas out of it is sniveling, mean and underhanded.

The EBS were taken over by AIB earlier this year & the government are 99% owners of the AIB. Under the bailout terms, bonuses are not allowed, so that's why they're not getting an extra month's payment.

And nor should they - no-one in the banks that we've bailed out should be getting bonuses - from the lowest paid to management... it may seem tough coming up to Christmas, but for them to expect us to fund an additional month's salary out of our tax coffers is just absurd.

And their response to this is? The threat of an all out strike.

I don't see them getting a whole lot of sympathy on that front.

Freddie59 · 08-12-2011 01:15PM

gigino wrote: »

"The EBS will offer staff loans to compensate them for non-payment of a traditional Christmas payment worth a month's salary."

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1207/ebs-business.html

Given that salaries in the EBS have been reduced - one poor man who works there only gets € 380,000 per year now,http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1117/ebs.html
I am sure they are all feeling the squeeze.

The State is injecting €2.4 billion into EBS. Should'nt we inject a few extra bob in and give them a bonus - say round that poor lads salary up to 400k a year ? Think of the good work they done during the boom, helping people get on the property ladder and sometimes loaning people over ten times their salary.

WTF??!! A month's salary????????:eek:

jester77 · 08-12-2011 01:19PM

Sharrow wrote: »

EBs the building soc not the ESB.

The bottom tier of staff 1 week before payday and 2 weeks before christmas got told they were not getting the bonus but all the managers are. They have gotten it every past year going back 11 years and to have it landed on them at such short notice when most of them were going to pay for christmas out of it is sniveling, mean and underhanded.

I've been in plenty of jobs that have had 13 salary payments, and it always stated in the contract that the 13th payment is based on company performance and is not guaranteed. I've always received it and would have been pissed off if I didn't, but it clearly stated in the contract that it was not a given, so I would have no right to complain.

But it is total BS for these people that upper mgmt are getting it

jester77 · 08-12-2011 01:23PM

Freddie59 wrote: »

WTF??!! A month's salary????????:eek:

This is not a bonus payment.

Your total salary is divided by 13 instead of 12. So every month you get a little less and then at the end of the year you get salary 12 + 13 in one payslip. Num 13 is not guaranteed and may not be paid out if the company had a bad year and is struggling.

woodoo · 08-12-2011 01:28PM

THE MANAGERS GIVING THEMSELVES A BONUS IS PRETTY SICK . I HOPE THE LOWER PAID STAFF STRIKE HARD.

My name is URL · 08-12-2011 01:28PM

It's specified in their contracts that they would receive a bonus payment so they've every right to expect to get it, whether people find it agreeable or not.

Was it specified in the contracts of certain government advisors that they would be entitled to pay increases which go against the pay cap introduced by the government? I doubt it very much, and yet some of them have been handed substantial pay increases recently.

Deank · 08-12-2011 01:28PM

Just to set the record straight on this one, the press and Senior Management of EBS have totally misquoted the terms of the EBS employees contracts, it is not a bonus that they were entitled too it was savings.
Each month they had a percentage of their salary deducted by payroll and put aside as savings, they were entitled to get this lump sum back in December, it was up to each individual whether they signed up to the savings scheme and the amount which they contributed.

ejmaztec · 08-12-2011 01:29PM

There are an awful lot of people who have been made redundant from other financial institutions, who probably wouldn't mind getting back into the industry, and aren't too fussed about bonuses these days.

Teyla Emmagan · 08-12-2011 01:29PM

Long as I get today's expected interest rate decrease passed on then I don't really care.

It smells of KFC in here, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

tightropetom · 08-12-2011 01:30PM

starbelgrade wrote: »

The EBS were taken over by AIB earlier this year & the government are 99% owners of the AIB. Under the bailout terms, bonuses are not allowed, so that's why they're not getting an extra month's payment.

And nor should they - no-one in the banks that we've bailed out should be getting bonuses - from the lowest paid to management... it may seem tough coming up to Christmas, but for them to expect us to fund an additional month's salary out of our tax coffers is just absurd.

I don't see them getting a whole lot of sympathy on that front.

They are not missing out on a bonus, they are missing out on wages that they opted to give up over the year so that they could receive them at xmas. They are not being paid out of your tax coffers, they are being paid out of their own earnings.

There are 13 lunar months in a year. Essentially what the company used to do was withhold any pay over 28days per calendar month and store it up as a ’13th’ month so people would have a ‘little extra’ at Xmas. What this decision now amounts to is that they lose 4 weeks pay. Essentially they have been paid less each month, with the excess being put towards this payment of their OWN money back to them. It’s NOT a bonus, but that’s how the media and managers are spinning it. And it’s the lower paid workers who are losing out, not the managers. These front line staff aren’t the ones who ruined this country.

krudler · 08-12-2011 01:38PM

Deank wrote: »

Just to set the record straight on this one, the press and Senior Management of EBS have totally misquoted the terms of the EBS employees contracts, it is not a bonus that they were entitled too it was savings.
Each month they had a percentage of their salary deducted by payroll and put aside as savings, they were entitled to get this lump sum back in December, it was up to each individual whether they signed up to the savings scheme and the amount which they contributed.

shhhh, facts get in the way of a juicy "bloody bankers!" story, facts shmacts.

fishy fishy · 08-12-2011 01:40PM

myself and my colleagues haven't even gotten a RAISE for the last three years, never mind any bonuses.

why should people be getting bonuses when we all had to take pay cuts. That doesn't make sense.

what's the point - this country is a laughing stock.

Deank · 08-12-2011 01:46PM

See the post above it's not a bonus, it's savings which were deducted monthly and due to the staff in December.

MagicSean · 08-12-2011 01:46PM

fishy fishy wrote: »

myself and my colleagues haven't even gotten a RAISE for the last three years, never mind any bonuses.

why should people be getting bonuses when we all had to take pay cuts. That doesn't make sense.

what's the point - this country is a laughing stock.

Can you not even read the few posts before yours?

rasper · 08-12-2011 01:46PM

imagine its fairly easy to make out if per contract is €x /13, then they should get it however it sounds like a xmas bonus which should not be paid to a bankrupt company, my own non loss making company axed overtime, sick pay, christmas bonuses, christmas party and anything else in2008-09 that cost anything

starbelgrade · 08-12-2011 01:49PM

tightropetom wrote: »

These front line staff aren’t the ones who ruined this country.

"Front line" staff? They're desk job workers.

You make it sound like they work in a frigging war zone.

Sir Oxman · 08-12-2011 01:50PM

tightropetom wrote: »

They are not missing out on a bonus, they are missing out on wages that they opted to give up over the year so that they could receive them at xmas. They are not being paid out of your tax coffers, they are being paid out of their own earnings.

Allow me to explain. There are 13 lunar months in a year. Essentially what the company used to do was withhold any pay over 28days per calendar month and store it up as a ’13th’ month so people would have a ‘little extra’ at Xmas. What this decision now amounts to is that they lose 4 weeks pay. Essentially they have been paid less each month, with the excess being put towards this payment of their OWN money back to them. It’s NOT a bonus, but that’s how the media and managers are spinning it. And it’s the lower paid workers who are losing out, not the managers. These front line staff aren’t the ones who ruined this country.

So, wait a minute.
People who worked are paid monthly. Some agreed to put the excess on 28days pay into an internal savings plan for xmas and now are not getting their own money back but senior management are?

WTF?
RTE are not reporting this at all (I'm not doubting you but the reports are totally out of kilter with what you've said)
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1207/ebs.html

Nowhere in that does it say it is a portion of a workers actual earned salary - if what you're saying is true than that is nothing but robbery.

stoneill · 08-12-2011 01:54PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

There will be thousands of people rioting outside the ESB headquarters, screaming "bastards!" and heaving bricks through the windows.

I will sell those bricks at €10 each.

starbelgrade · 08-12-2011 01:56PM

gambiaman wrote: »

Nowhere in that does it say it is a portion of a workers actual earned salary - if what you're saying is true than that is nothing but robbery.

It's not true. He just made that up.

Even Unite - the trade union for EBS workers - recognise that this is not the case... Union official Colm Quinlan yesterday said "workers considered the payment a built-in payroll savings scheme to subsidise extra expenses at this time of year."

Now while they may have considered it a built-in payroll savings scheme, that doesn't mean that it actually is one.

This is a simple case of workers throwing their toys out of the pram because they're not getting any bonus this year.

DoesNotCompute · 08-12-2011 02:00PM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Sure we have to have electricity like, y'know?

FAIL

krudler · 08-12-2011 02:00PM

starbelgrade wrote: »

It's not true. He just made that up.

Even Unite - the trade union for EBS workers - recognise that this is not the case... Union official Colm Quinlan yesterday said "workers considered the payment a built-in payroll savings scheme to subsidise extra expenses at this time of year."

Now while they may have considered it a built-in payroll savings scheme, that doesn't mean that it actually is one.

This is a simple case of workers throwing their toys out of the pram because they're not getting any bonus this year.

well if anyone here was in the same boat they'd be pissed too. especially if they were contributing wages towards it all year. dunno what to believe now.

EBS building soc workers want annual Xmas bonus

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