£1,500 bonus to thank BT staff for their work during pandemic branded by union as a 'bribe' to vote against strike

BT has decided to dangle a one-time pandemic bonus under the noses of tens of thousands of workers as it stares down the barrel of potential industrial action. The UK telco said it has proposed to offer 59,000 of its frontline and key workers the reward. This bonus, BT said, equates to 5 per cent of average pay and would be …

[Red Ted]

£59,000,000 is quite a bung to prevent a strike!

Note that I've ignored the shares as that is "paper money" that the finance office have three years to hide under the carpet!

Given what the strike might cost the company, that's probably quite cheap though, if it has the desired effect.

Mine's the ones with the brown envelope in the pocket --->>>

[Mike 137]

£1,000 in cash and £500 in shares that would vest after three years

"Shares that would vest after three years". What's the betting that there's a round of redundancies in the pipeline?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: £1,000 in cash and £500 in shares that would vest after three years

The £1,000 is for front-line workers and the £500 shares is for all (same deal they did last year).

Anon because I might be on for the shares but certainly not the £1,000. Still waiting to hear if I'm considered in a managerial position to get a bonus still (probably not but hope springs eternal and my pay grade is equivalent to someone I know is a manager).

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple maths. Bonus < Pay cuts from changed contracts over time = Even more for shareholders.

[Anonymous Coward]

HQ,Tax and NI

that bonus also is subject to tax and NI before what's left gets to the engineers. As for the HQ, they've decided to relocate so while its technically a disposal of that building, they're getting another one somewhere else.

[Sherrie Ludwig]

Assuming that the vote is a secret ballot, what's to prevent the employee from taking the money and voting strike?