{"id":14596,"date":"2018-02-07T17:57:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T17:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14596"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:09","slug":"living-parallel-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14596","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Living in a parallel universe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greedy bosses caused outrage yesterday after shamelessly refusing to return the massive bonuses they received while the company sank.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite branded their refusal \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba slap in the face\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 for the thousands of workers whose livelihoods and pensions have been upended by the disaster.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite hollow apologies for the collapse at a joint select committee hearing, all seven Carillion<\/a> bosses in attendance refused to commit to returning huge bonuses pocketed during the run up to firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s implosion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Addressing the group, Labour MP and business committee chair Rachel Reeves said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSomebody who has worked for the business for 22 years, who every year paid into their pension scheme and is now coming up for retirement will find that their pension cut by 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll of you sitting here received multimillion payments from Carillion. You say how sad and disappointed you are but what actions do you take?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Right this wrong\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just words. The money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the bank. Why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you give some money back and try to put right some of this wrong?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Former chief executive Richard Howson<\/a> was paid bonuses of \u00c2\u0141293,000 in 2015 and \u00c2\u0141245,000 in 2016 before being fired last year after a severe profits warning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shockingly, Howson insisted he deserved the money and said he would only give the money back if it was proven the bonuses hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been paid \u00e2\u20ac\u015bin line with processes\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the hearing, MPs heard how Carillion bosses paid more in shareholder dividends than staff pension contributions<\/a> and handed themselves huge salaries and bonuses while steering the company towards the rocks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not one of the executives present accepted any direct responsibility for the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the hearing, Reeves and fellow Labour MP and work and pensions committee chair Frank Field labelled the former-bosses \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdelusional\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a joint statement, they said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis morning a series of delusional characters maintained that everything was hunky dory until it all went suddenly and unforeseeably wrong.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe heard variously that this was the fault of the Bank of England, the foreign exchange markets, advisers, Brexit, the snap election, investors, suppliers, the construction industry, the business culture of the Middle East and professional designers of concrete beams.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEverything we have seen points the fingers in another direction \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to the people who built a giant company on sand in a desperate dash for cash.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Royal Liverpool Hospital <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The appearance of Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leadership before the joint select committee coincided with the confirmation that Royal Liverpool Hospital is unlikely to be completed this year because of the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collapse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a result Unite renewed its call on the government to increase help and assistance to the supply chain and sub-contractors, which have been left reeling by Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe expected long delays before work is restarted will place even greater financial stress on sub-contractors who have already lost thousands due to Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collapse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is already resulting in workers being laid off and skills being lost from the industry. While communities are being denied world class medical facilities that are urgently needed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cartmail added that the statements Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bosses made to MPs underscored the need for a public enquiry<\/a> into how and why the company failed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor workers who have already lost their jobs, or who are still facing redundancy, it must be sickening to be told that all of Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bosses believed their performance was exemplary and the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collapse was not their fault,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs if that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough of a slap in the face for workers, they shamelessly refused calls to hand back the massive bonuses they received while running the company into the ground. Quite frankly they are living in a parallel universe.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Picture\u00c2\u00a0of models <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carillion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greedy bosses caused outrage yesterday after shamelessly refusing to return the massive bonuses they received while the company sank.   Unite branded their refusal \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba slap in the face\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 for the thousands of workers whose livelihoods and pensions have been upended by the disaster.   Despite hollow apologies for the collapse at a joint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[855,102,210,29],"wps_subtitle":"Carillion greedy bosses refuse to hand back bonuses","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26402,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14596\/revisions\/26402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}