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UNI Finance Global Union welcomed recent rules put in place by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors that will limit bankers’ cash bonuses but said the third holiday season since the onset of global financial crash is shaping up to be a story straight out of a Charles Dickens novel.



“This is a first step in the right direction but there is much more that needs to be done to curb the sales and bonus culture in banks around the world,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings. “We need a fundamental change in the rules of the game so that there are no rewards for unscrupulous bosses and bank branch workers can focus on providing good advice to their clients and not on sales quotas.”



The world’s top banking executives have still been raking in lavish bonuses in the last three years despite their creation of a massive financial crisis that has wreaked havoc on the global economy, the global labour market and the global work force. The new regulation in the EU would rein in bonuses for bankers and put most of it in stock in their companies, tying their remuneration more closely to the success of their banks.



“The pay for banking executives is out of control and has set the wrong incentives for reforming the global financial industry in a fair and sustainable way,” said Head of UNI Finance Oliver Roethig. “Finance bosses need to have their income tied to long-term earnings targets that focus on building the industry in a way that is profitable for banks, helpful for customers and ensures fair working conditions.”



An example of the out-of-control bonuses is in Ireland where AIB has destroyed the Irish economy with its focus on maximising share price in the short-term. Now the top executive will still get 40 million euros in bonus payments despite the havoc they have wreaked in their country.



Irish finance union IBOA has blasted the bonuses, which only go to top executives.



“The vast majority of staff in AIB have not benefitted from any such payments. Indeed, our members in AIB are now suffering the consequences of the distorted remuneration policies introduced in AIB over the last decade or so - which have given rise to a pay structure which has placed increasing emphasis on performance-related pay compared to basic pay,” IBOA said in a statement. “These policies were introduced by the Bank's senior management - against the wishes of IBOA - on the basis of encouraging staff to meet short-term targets.”

The financial crisis in Ireland has now lead to severe austerity measures by the government, which is penalising working families who were largely victims of the finance CEOs schemes. Despite the strong protests from the Irish trade union center the ICTU, 80 members of the Dáil voted last week to reduce the minimum wage by €1. The ICTU condemned the Government's decision to target lower paid workers said it would name and shame all the members of the Irish parliament who “voted in favour of targeting the working poor.”

UNI Finance supports IBOA to ensure the protection of as many jobs as possible within AIB and the industry generally. UNI Finance also calls for a new approach to remuneration throughout the sector that would eliminate the bonus culture by providing a reasonable level of basic pay for bank employees. Together with its affiliates around the world, UNI Finance pushes for these changes in companies’ remuneration policies as well as in regulation for the finance industry.

Big bonuses for financial executives have been the norm throughout the crisis. One highlight was $165 million bonuses paid by nationalised AIG to those senior managers who brought about the failure of the company. In Britain this year, total earning of directors in FT100 rose by 55% and banks are returning to pay out more than 50% of net revenues to staff.

“It is not the ordinary bank employees that see an increase,” said Roethig, “rather like workers in other industries they face cuts in earnings, losing their jobs and ever more pressure to make profit, irrespective of the customers’ needs.”

The European Trade Union Confederation has created a bonus advent calendar that shows the lavish bonuses European finance chiefs will get this year. For each day from now until Christmas, a new CEO bonus will be added to the calendar at www.etuc.org.