JT executives to share £340,000 loyalty bonuses
Friday 26th June 2009, 2:58PM BST.
Chairman John Henwood
TOP executives at Jersey Telecom will get paid a total of £340,000 in loyalty bonuses later this year.
The cash will go to seven directors of the States-owned utility company at the end of October. It is not known exactly how it will be shared out.
Retired finance director Philip Ainsworth has already been paid £59,000 from the senior management retention pot. The other recipients are group chief executive Bob Lawrence, operations director Steve Haigh, technology and planning director Jerry Rabaste, Channel Islands division managing director Tim Ringsdore, human resources director Janine Ward and associate director of corporate affairs Daragh McDermott.
Chairman John Henwood said that the payments were essential to keep the best managers at JT in the face of unprecedented competition, and that they had proved to be very successful in achieving that aim.
However, the news has not gone down well with some staff members, especially as it is understood that some JT employees did not receive a salary increase this year.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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those fatcats love their fatcat pay.
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Isn’t it amazing how there is always a rationalisation, Oh we better bribe them to stay or they’ll run away….where they gonna go….?
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What an absolute joke!!
Loyalty bonus???? For staying with your employer!!
Surely anyone that stays in work for a period of time would qualify for this so what about the “real” workers at JT who REALLY deserve a loyalty bonus!
This is just a disgraceful excuse so that the already rich can enjoy another luxury…..ridiculous in the current climate!!
As it is “state-owned”, is it our tax money paying for these bonuses?
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The idea that any one particular person is indispensable in order to run a successful business is pure myth. This is about public money and should be used to either improve the services or be returned to the public in the form of lower tariffs – times have changed and it is time for these over paid execs and others who are sucking it up out of the public trough to learn that they, like everyone else, are going to have to work harder for longer and for less – like the rest of the real world!
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I wonder how much they will donate to the JDA after all the campaigning they did to keep these guys in jobs. Perhaps the competition will advise how much their top executives received so the Jersey Tax payer knows whether or not they are getting value for money.
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At least their monopoly is FINALLY being broken after many many years of ripping us off, so they can enjoy their “well-deserved” bonus this year – next year I suspect their coffers will be dry. Profits are already down considerably since they lost the mobile monopoly, now that other broadband operators are going to be allowed to compete JT can say adios to this sort of lavish spending
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Yet we cannot get decent broadband !!!!
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Absolute disgrace, this is a utility company and owned by the States so who pays for that? The taxpayer of course,, a loyalty bonus? You have to be kidding!!! there is something seriously wrong with this.
To say that our states members have abused every loophole in the book is an understatement, it is absolutely ludicrous how they are allowed to get way with this kind of behaviour.
Terry Le Sueur is our chief minister and should be preventing things like this.
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Er – you hve 4 operators in the Island
Cable & Wireless Sure brand
Alitel – Vodaphone brand
Newtel
Jersey Telecom & Wave
So in a competitive market any new entrant would love to poach any senior staff of the previous monopoly. Thankfully they didn’t due to preventative measures put in place to reward loyalty at a difficult time of transition. Also please remember thty ar all ‘locals’ so no J cats to worry about and for those of you ho look beyond Jersey shores telecommunications is a very sought after skill globally.
JT is actually very profitable and the states are only shareholders. Therefore if a companhy is profitable it can afford to pay out bonuses. It is not reliant on the states.
Compared to their equivalents in the finance sector this is peanuts.
No I do not work for them in any capacity directly or indirectly. I just think a Jersey success story should be rewarded and applauded plus the company pays tax unlike other non-Jersey companies who pay their directors much much more.
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But we, the customers and tax payers, pay through our noses for slow broadband and bad service! What a joke!
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No wonder the phone bills are so bally high!!!
Bring in the competition i say and then we will see where their loyalties lie when islanders speak with their wallets – at least until their colleagues in the states decide to look after them and levy a “non-JT account holder” tax on islanders!!!!
The island is a total joke and i am ashamed to be local and grouped with these!
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Loyalty Bonus? Laughable, if it wasn’t so pathetic an excuse.
In this day and age of financial strictures, and job losses, they should be thankful they even HAVE a job. Many don’t. That pocket lining cash could so easily have employed another 20 people on a reasonable wage to help alleviate the high unemployment already taking place in this island. In the face of the announcement this week that several “loyal” bank, and legal employees are to lose their jobs, why should others be given bonuses for not having lost theirs?
With all the job losses going on out there, staying in work is not loyalty, it’s a lucky bonus in itself.
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If your part of the “click” you can get away with
anything…….
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These large multi billion pound companies set up telocs all over the World, the last thing they would want is a JT insular Director and pay him the money JT pay.
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Welcome to the Fat Cat Club of Jersey, courtesy of the general public.
If these ‘bonuses’ are being paid to retain these staff, presumably they have had to give some guarantees that they will not allow themselves to be poached elsewhere?
Of course the States will not be concerned about this. As one comment said, they are shareholders and concerned with healthy profits and nothing else.
I would imagine the staff whose salaries have been put ‘on hold’ this year are far from delighted.
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Words cannot describe the horror I felt in reading this. This money should be handed back to the customer at the very least. We pay the highest phone charges through the JT pricing regime in Europe and in times of recession a jesture of good will should be given.
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Yes JT is very profitable for the States but these profits are being hit by competition. Remember that profits go back to the States after running expenses which help keep taxes down. What happens when JT’s profits get hit even more? Who will be making up the shortfall? It won’t be any of the others who are privately owned. So yes the good old tax payers will be financing any shortfall! Its good to have competition isn’t it?
This £340,000 will come from profits I believe so thats £340,000 lost from the States coffers, so I believe the likes of you and me will have to make it up.
As per paying them to stay the other companies are much bigger players, maybe they’d prefer to bring in their own people from outside? If any of these people were going to jump ship I would have thought they would have done so by now. How many of the directors are in their mid fifties and would want a new job when they could be retiring at 60 anyway? According to some research the worst age for stress in men is 58 as they approach the end of their working lives, why risk it all for an unknown quantity?
Just because the competitors have come in doesn’t mean they can better the previous monopoly’s benefits and security.
As per competition on an island of a maximum of 90,000 customers is it viable for four competitors to make much money? I don’t think so. If you’re lucky what’s the most you can expect as a competitor maybe 20-30,000 customers? Is it worth running a GSM network for example for this many? Wouldn’t it cost as much if not more to provide the service what with running costs and staff needed to service all these sites?
There is also the issue of these GSM masts cluttering up our green and pleasant countryside they don’t look the best do they? What about any possible health issues (if there are any) surely this will be magnified with all these extra masts?
Also we have the issue of those on the coal face getting very little this year. I would imagine they have been told things are hard etc and the need to tighten one’s belt in bad economic times, then they find some are getting more than most are paid in one year as a bonus.
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They should reduce the line rentals and tariffs. They certainly don’t deseave a bonus.
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My bonus is bigger than that – this isn’t that much for high fliers like myself.
Granted it is more than most people earn a year but hey just because you aren’t that successful please don’t knock others who are. It isn’t pretty – take comfort in the fact that others have made something of their lives.
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Gods Mentor
Most people are not against a “high flier” as you put it getting a bonus for good performance, but a loyalty bonus is a ridiculous reason to award lots of money especially when others are losing their livelihoods.
Personally, I haven’t seen many “high fliers” in Jersey and I’ve worked in finance for 20 years.
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JT Directors to get a bonus.
This must be a sick joke on the public.
If JT’s tariffs were fair then there would not have been the margins for another operator to come to the Island.
They tell us that phone chargers are cheaper, maybe but the rental is still very expensive and no matter whether you use Sure or JT the rental still has to be paid.
Rip Off Jersey by the mate of Oscar Puffin.
Ed.
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So let me get this right.
The payment is a “loyalty bonus”, paid to people who we are told would very possibly leave the company if they were not paid for their loyalty?
Ok.
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I thought they said they made a loss? At least share it with all jt employees. Oh yes…and us of course!
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Indeed! gods mentor.
Some people are so successfull that they dont work at all!! I am refering to myself of course.
People get very irritated when they ask the most popular question in Jersey,
“Where do you work”???
When i reply that i dont they get quite green with envy & curl there lip.
Why would one work when they dont have to???
After all it would surely be selfish & greedy to take a job off someone who needed it.
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“Granted it is more than most people earn a year but hey just because you aren’t that successful please don’t knock others who are. It isn’t pretty – take comfort in the fact that others have made something of their lives. ”
That’s an interesting way to ensure a growth of resentment towards yourself. Ironic eh?
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The loyalty bonus or whatever you want to call this payment should be equal to what the other Telecom companies pay their executives.
If it is substantially more we could not call it a competitive market payment.
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For Gods sake please get your facts right before commenting its obvious most of the above posts have been made by people with no CLUE about Telecoms , Tax or the services JT provide . I know its all the rage bash JT for every little thing but dont just make it up ” Highest call charges in Europe ” Our tax Money going into there pockets ” . Thats all rubbish JT is one of the few States Ventures that actually MAKES money that go’s back into the public coffer and if people dont stop moaning about Monopoly im going to Puke , that ended bloody ages ago on Mobile & Broadband and people are still going on about it , change the record
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I don’t understand why everyone keeps moaning about issues like this ? it will never change.
Just change your service provider.
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Q
The problem is that this is not a truly competitive market. This will only arise when competitors have access to the fixed line market, which we all know will never happen.Thus JT has an unfair advantage which the States is reluctant to change, given the contribution JT profits make to the States coffers.
Gods Mentor
JT is not a success, as it has not competed in a truly free market.
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Wow its amazing to read all the anti JT comments. It seems most of you forget this company also employs some 400 staff. They didn’t see loyalty bonus’s and more ironically they are the very people that will be affected by all your calls for cheaper prices and more competition.
But of course then you’ll all just have something new to moan about when an extra 400 people are unemployed. At least your being doing it on your cheaper ADSL lines.
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Ref comment 29 from someone and 26 from Carl Marx
Nice to see JT getting some positive comments , i know its going off message a bit but , JT pays its profits back to the States and it pays its taxes in the Island , do the others ?
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28. red flag
Sure compete on fixed lines you also have the option of skype. The least profitable part of any telecoms industry is now the fixed line business(2 providers) so any new entrant into a market will tend to pick the most profitable area broadband (3 providers) and mobile (3 providers). As mobile users can access web services on their mobile you don’t need to also have broadband dependent on how you are using the technology.
30. reggio
the tax changes that were brought in also effect businesses therefore any jersey owned and operated company pays business tax and non jersey owned company does not therefore JT do pay tax and the others don’t.
Also both please refer to 26 who sums it up.
As I said previously JT is a success story it also competes internationally it is a Jersey company that is not finance which we all agree Jersey needs to be a bit more diversified in its economy and it pays tax to the states.
How many other companies qualify on being a success, operate internationally, non-finance company and contribute tax – very few.
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Oh dear Gods Mentor:
You’re one of those that measures success by monetary gain I guess. I’m not. I don’t know you but by my standards you may well be particularly unsuccessful.
The people I know who have TRULY “made something of themselves” are amazing people who happen to only earn a moderate amount. But then I judge success by how much of a benefit to society you are (not in a monetary way but in how much your being alive helps other individuals locally or worldwide).
I also know many people who would be successful by your standards but most of them (not all might I add) will not be remotely missed once they die, and their money won’t go with them… how is that success?
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This bonus payment to Jersey Telecoms staff is totally outrageous. Essentially this is public money, the company is owned by the states.
We have a very expensive second class broadband service and they have a monopoly on fixed line services.
Surely in these difficult times it cannot be right to give public money away to staff that get good perks and who are already very well paid to do their jobs.
Is no states member going to investigate this waste of money? Brake the company up and sell it.
As for JT been a success, well that’s true, but having a monopoly for so long and still do in many areas, this does rather help!!
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Tim its the management not the staff who will be getting this money.
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As the States is the shareholder they must (?) have approved the bonus scheme, which of course could (should) have been used on health, the elderly, or something important. What of course isn’t also mentioned is the level of basic salaries, bonus, pensions, expenses etc, that have all grown very substantially above inflation I believe over the past few years set against falling returns?
Perhaps the JEP in the interest of transparency should start publishing this information annually for all States controlled utilities, and start soon with a retrospective review to 2005 perhaps?
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If there owned by the public, can we see a list of the managements expense claims? Could the JEP find this out?
While other people are losing their jobs or risk losing their jobs,these Jersey Telecom fatcats get bumper payouts.
Could this money not be used elsewhere, how about reducing call costs for their shareholders, the public?
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@ 36 Phil
You are incorrect about salaries rising above the cost of living at JT.
I dont know about managers but the staff salaries certainly have not risen. Cost of living at the most for the last 10 or so years.
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Jersey Telecom is no longer a monopoly and has been operating in a competitive environment for over 3 years in both Jersey and Guernsey. They offer a very good and reliable service and customer service is generally excellent! Everyone keeps moaning how expensive they are GET REAL EVERYTHING IS EXPENSIVE IN JERSEY! You live on a small Island where everything has to be imported and you have only around 80,000 potential customers and 3 Mobile Networks??? Real estate is expensive and operating costs are much higher due to economies of scale. Yes I am a Jerseyman and a former employee of the company now living abroad. The majority of the negative comments left here are from those with typical Islander mentality who have not or do not live in the real world!
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Big bonuses for allowing the flippin que to be so long in the shop that a twenty minute wait seems standard,don’t get me wrong the staff are well trained,pleasant and very helpful by and large, so instead of paying these self congratulatory bonuses,let’s have more staff on the ground please………..sighs…….
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I receive a loyalty bonus every month – it’s called my wages.
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Have I missed something here ?
Jersey’s residents asked for competition in the telecom market, and our elected representatives gave them what they wanted – Competition !!!
Ah, but the residents then decided that they did not want rival networks litering the island with phone masts ! Oh dear !
And now, with competition amongst telecom service providers, they are seeking to retain key staff. That my dear friends is how business works.
JT needs to be both profitable for the island and compete with its rivals, and that may include retaining key staff through such loyalty bonuses.
Residents of this island now have free choice as to which telecom provider they use. It is of no concern to them how each service provider remunerates its staff, the consumer has a choice based on price and standard of service. Simple.
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