| |
|
FAT CATS
BBC bosses pocketed bumper pay rises at a
time when thousands of workers faced redundancy and
viewing figures dropped. Director-general Mark Thompson's
pay rose by £160,000 from £459,000 to £619,000 and
Director of television Jana Bennett's basic pay rose from
£255,000 to £321,000.
Jenny Abramsky, director of radio and music, received a
total wage of £322,000 including benefits and bonus,
while Deputy director-general Mark Byford's total
take-home pay was £456,000, including a basic wage of
£403,000, up from £351,000 the previous year.
The increases come at a time when the BBC is cutting
costs and axing jobs. Some 1,132 posts have already been
closed, with more than 2,000 to go next year. The BBC
said the pay rises were part of a two-year process to
bring executives' base pay up to the market median.
Michael Grade, the BBC chairman, defended pay rises for
the executives and said the rises were fair. He said
senior staff should not be "punished for their
loyalty" when they could earn far more in the
private sector. How "loyal" would they be without
the massive pay increases?
He said the corporation's top executives are
underpaid and that senior staff were working at a
"discount" rate, despite their recent huge
salary increases. He said, "People may not like the
fact that somebody running a department of the BBC can
earn this kind of money but they could earn an awful lot
more elsewhere." Well maybe they should apply for
other jobs outside of the BBC then. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Jul/06)
Energy bosses face a grilling from MPs over
massive price rises. Company chiefs will be summoned to
the House of Commons to justify "fat cat"
salaries for themselves while their customers face
soaring fuel bills. And consumer watchdogs want the
Government to outlaw disconnections, which are running at
about 20,000 a year, to protect hard-up families.
A spokesman for Energywatch said, "The scale of the
increases is inevitably going to lead tens of thousands
of households into debt and under threat of
disconnection." The call comes after Britain's major
energy firms announced a series of inflation-busting
price rises despite making massive profits. British Gas,
which made a £288million profit for the first half of
2004, has increased gas by 12.4% and electricity by 9.4%
- the second time this year its customers have faced
higher bills.
Npower followed their lead with an 11.8% rise for gas and
7.6% for electricity while Scottish and Southern Energy
has announced price rises of up to 9% - then boosted the
salaries of five executive directors, including
£615,000-a-year Ian Marchant, by a total of £460,000.
But that is peanuts compared with the boss of British
Gas, whose package was worth more than £3.2million in
2003. Sir Roy Gardner, chief executive of Centrica, the
parent company of British Gas, saw his pay alone soar by
40% to £1.48million. Against this background, MPs are
now widening the scope of a Parliamentary inquiry into
disconnections so they can question fuel suppliers about
price rises.
The investigation follows the case of elderly couple
George and Gertrude Bates who died in their London home
in 2003 after British Gas cut them off because they
missed a £140 payment. (Source: Sunday Mirror)
|
|
|