Ulster Bank union slams RBS chief’s £1m bonus

Worker representatives at Ulster Bank have condemned the payment of a £1 million (€1.2m) bonus to the head of the bank’s parent company, Royal Bank of Scotland, a fortnight after it announced thousands of job cuts.

Ulster Bank wants to get rid of 950 staff, 600 in the Republic and the rest in the North, before the end of the year, while RBS is seeking 3,500 job cuts in Britain.

IBOA, which represents the workers at Ulster Bank, said the news that RBS chief executive Stephen Hester is to receive an annual bonus worth almost £1m, on top of a basic salary of £1.2m, “added insult to injury” for staff in the Irish subsidiary.

“Just two weeks after the bank announced plans to make 950 staff redundant in Ireland, we now learn that the board of RBS — which is 82% owned by the British state — has sanctioned this excessively generous bonus payment to Stephen Hester,” said IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick.

Mr Broderick said that while some commentators said the RBS board were to be commended for awarding the bonus in shares rather than cash “we should not lose sight of the fact that even a modest improvement in the RBS share price will now produce a substantial additional windfall for Mr Hester”.

“Furthermore, this is not the only bonus payment available to him,” said Mr Broderick. “Apart from this annual award, Mr Hester also stands to benefit from a long-term incentive plan and a possible additional contribution to his personal pension scheme.

“These lavish rewards... are in sharp contrast to the bank’s treatment of its Ulster Bank employees.”