Royal Mail boss slammed for receiving huge £140k bonus - as union threatens six more months of strike action
and live on Freeview channel 276
The CEO of Royal Mail has been slammed after his half-a-million-pound salary and £140,000 bonus was revealed. It comes as postal workers threaten to take further strike action for six more months in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
Simon Thompson was grilled by MPs - spearheaded by Labour MP Darren Jones - over his pay during a hearing with the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee. His £540,000 salary is more than 23 times higher than that of the average Royal Mail worker (£25,700).
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdDuring the event it was also revealed Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Nick Read, has a yearly salary of £415,000. In the 2021/2022 financial year, Mr Read also received a bonus of £400,000.
Around the time Royal Mail were reporting daily losses of £1 million and with thousands more redundancies planned to cut costs, Mr Thompson was asked by MPs to justify the bonus. Labour MP Ian Lavery asked the CEO: “Are you really worth that amount of money, Mr Thompson?”
Mr Thompson argued that “last year is different to this year” before adding, “this year we are losing £1 million a day, the situation is a very serious situation”. He also received scrutiny for his plans to slash sick pay for Royal Mail workers.
![Credit: Sky News](https://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2023/01/20/09/Screenshot%202023-01-20%20at%2009.35.27.png?crop=3:2,smart&width=640&quality=65)
![Credit: Sky News](/img/placeholder.png)
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) responded to the news and confirmed the long-running dispute is not close to being resolved and is clearly “not an issue of affordability”. Members have threatened further industrial action could take place across the next six months.