Scrap “unjustifiable” bonuses for rail bosses

01.04.09

Britain’s second largest rail union called on Government today to scrap the “double your money” bonuses at Network Rail which last year saw top boss Iain Coucher walk away with over £1 million.

On the day that NR unveiled its latest five year plan, TSSA leader Gerry Doherty called on Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon to finally halt “this ludicrous gravy train”.

He said: “This latest five year plan is just like the five year plans in Stalin’s Russia - it sets phony targets which are all too easy to achieve.

“And once those targets are achieved, Mr Coucher and his fellow directors can claim their huge bonuses for hitting those targets. They are playing at the casino with our money and they are effectively fixing the game to make sure the taxpayer loses every year.”

Last year Mr Coucher doubled his £500,000 salary to £1.2 million after hitting performance targets set by NR’s renumeration committee.

But the committee is chaired by a paid NR manager, Jim Cornell, who receives over £80,000 a year from the wholly taxpayers funded company which claims to be private even though it ias no shareholders or dividends.

Mr Doherty said: “Let’s forget about five year plans and just pay these well rewarded directors their salaries-they already earn enough of our money without taking any more.”

He said even if the targets are met ver the next five years, NR will only be back to running the trains on the same time achieved by British Rail some 15 years ago.

“The Government will have spent over £70 billion on our dysfunctional partly privatised railway to get us back to where we were in 1992.

“No one should be paid a bonus for going backwards. These people really cannot run a railway.”