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Bonus imbroglio threatens saving negotiations at Finnair
Friday, 09 March 2012
Finnair cabin
crew are upset about the revelation that the company's management
received one million in bonuses while staff agreed to pay cuts to help
the company to be maintained.
18 key
executives are reported to have received over 2.7 million euros in
bonuses last year. In the autumn of 2009, flight attendants agreed to a
savings programme that cut wages by over 12 million euros by the end of
2010.
"We negotiated
with the firm impression that this was helping Finnair deal with its
financial straits," flight attendants' association chair Thelma Åkers
stated in a written release on Thursday.
The deal struck
between flight attendants and the company was aimed at saving jobs and
helping to ensure Finnair's future viability.
"We did not
know that by giving permission to shift wages into company accounts
that we would be financing extra bonuses for top management," Åkers
continued.
The flight
attendants' association will be holding a meeting on the 15th of this
month to consider if it will continue talks now underway on further
savings measures.
Jyri Häkämies,
who still a year ago was the cabinet minister responsible for majority
state-owned companies, said on Thursday that he had been unaware of
Finnair's bonus arrangements for the 18 executives.
Häkämies, who
is currently Minister of Economic Affairs, told YLE that the company
could improve its transparency, but also that it cannot be criticized
for the arrangement itself.
He pointed out
that within a listed company decisions on rewarding management are the
responsibility of its board. The state, he noted, has given only
general guidelines on the issue.
Source Svenska Yle, Finland
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