Two Minds

December 8, 2009 at 8:44 am · Filed under Immigration, Parliament

Listening to Radio 4 this morning, I heard Phil Woolas, immigration minister, say that 29 of the senior management of the UK Border Agency had shared bonuses worth £290,000 this year. And I heard him say that they had done their job. I listened carefully and I’m certain that not once did he say that they had “exceeded expectations” or “performed beyond the performance expected of them” or something similar.

For me, his neglect to state this is potentially significant. The business I work for operates a bonus scheme and it depends on both the performance of the business as a whole as well as my own personal performance.

I write “potentially significant” though, as it would be foolish to say that every bonus scheme operates in the same way. Certainly, some companies will operate bonuses as part of the normal remuneration package: a flexible percentage that not only allows for reward of exceeding expectations, but also allows for tackling weak performance by way of a decrease in overall remuneration.

And so, whilst these are easy headline grabbing items, it’s not necessarily fair to either the government or the employees involved, to accuse them in this way. To be honest, I thought that Mr Woolas answered the questions clearly and defended the agency, whilst doing his best to clarify some of the big numbers that John Humphreys was throwing around the studio.

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