Republican News · Thursday 11 April 2002

Directors get double partnership wage rise

When is a pay freeze not a pay freeze? When you work for the building materials group Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH). Liam O'Mahony, CRH chief executive only got a €5,000 pay increase last year leaving him with €1.26 million for the year. Other directors also had small total pay increases, leaving the Irish Times to claim it was a "virtual pay freeze".

However you have to read the small print. The four directors were actually paid an 11% wage increase last year. The small net increase came because their bonuses were cut from 60% of basic salary to 45%.

Their 11% wage increase and 45% bonus is, strangely enough, far above what most workers in the partnership agreement got. The PPF allowed ordinary workers a 5.5% wage increase last year. The CRH directors got double that, without their six-figure bonuses even being considered.

Irish Nationwide's managing director and company secretary got a 14% pay rise in 2001. The two share a package worth €1.12 million. Michael Fingleton and Stan Purcell had a salary package of €854,000 and pension contribution of €258,000.

The total wage bill for Nationwide's other 368 staff comes to $10.9 million, which, with an average payment of €29,620, is considerably less than what is paid to the bank's top two managers.