Wedgwood bonuses obscene, says union boss

UNION officials at Waterford Crystal have described as “outrageous and obscene” the bonuses paid to seven executives at a time when the company was axing 485 jobs in Dungarvan.

The seven executives in Waterford Wedgwood pocketed €10.2 million in salaries and bonuses last year while close to 2,000 staff are facing redundancy in the group worldwide.

The bonuses for the last financial year were more than double last year’s.

ATGWU boss in Waterford, Walter Cullen, said his members are outraged by the bonuses paid, particularly at such a tough time for the company.

“This comes at a time when the company is losing €160m. I don’t think there is any justification for paying directors that kind of money. To make it at a time when 485 people are being made redundant here in Waterford is obscene.

“The amount paid in bonuses is a third of what it costs to make 485 people redundant in Dungarvan. Yet seven people at the top table are sharing this. There’s no justification for that whatsoever,” he said.

Outgoing chief executive Redmond O’Donoghue got a package of over e1m for his services.

That was slightly less than he got in 2004, the annual report and accounts for the year to March 31 disclose.

The biggest winner in the pay bonanza was new chief executive Peter Cameron, who walked away with a hefty bonus of more than €3m for selling off All-Clad in the US, the group’s most successful subsidiary.

Mr Cullen said while the directors are being rewarded, people in Dungarvan who worked so hard to make the company profitable are losing their jobs.

“The workforce did whatever was asked over the year to make the company profitable.

“They have taken pay cuts, cutbacks in their benefits and other cuts. I don’t see how these obscene amounts of money can be paid at such a time for a company,” he said.