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Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) boss Stephen Hester is being urged to turn down a £963,000 bonus in shares awarded to him by the bank.
Liberal Democrat minister Jeremy Browne said Hester was "a public servant" and should reject the bonus offered by the 82% taxpayer-owned bank, while the Unite union said it was "disgusting".
RBS said Hester's bonus, which is far less than some predicted he would receive but comes on top of his £1.2m salary, reflected his "significant contribution...towards rebuilding RBS".
The Unite union said the bonus was "utterly disgusting and offensive" while the TUC described it as "utterly unacceptable".
The RMT's General Secretary Bob Crow said: "RBS is owned by the country. To give someone £1m and then to give them a massive bonus on top, while public sector workers get a pay freeze and their pension contributions go up, I have got to say that is a complete disgrace.
"What a kick in the face to those people who deliver a public service for our people in this country."
TUC leader Brendan Barber said the bonus was "a very bad decision", especially at a time of public sector pay restraint.
"To be told that a banker supposed to be working for the public service is to be made an exception with this huge increase, it's utterly unacceptable."
RBS has announced thousands of job cuts, although it recorded a £2bn profit in its most recent trading period, compared with a £1.6bn loss in the same period in 2010.
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People in glass houses
Leave Hester alone. He will turn the RBS around. If the FSA can reward themselves for failure on an unprecedented scale and a bonus simply for doing jobs which already pay well above the norm,then bankers will always have a right to their bonus.
Posted by: RBS customer
He is clearly not content with his bonus
He is clearly not content with his bonus as we received this letter this morning informing us that they have take 9p yes 9p from each of our eight year old kids accounts to “...to reduce an outstanding balance on (our) account...” how disgusting and low can these people get? This is sheer incompetence and disgusting theft! I think Stephen Hester should see it fit to dip into his bonus (I’m sure he could afford 18p) and return it to Jason and Claire!
Posted by: Stephen
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unions are hypocrits
This man will deserve every penny if he can get RBS to the stage where they can repay our money, and personally i think he will, it makes you laugh when people like bob crow and the unions baulk against this bonus when at the same time they have just secured a bonus during the olympics (so called) for there members just for doing there job, he says they will be working harder, how will a train driver work harder? beats me, I wonder if Bob crow or any of the other union bosses could run RBS...I doubt it, leave the man alone and he will turn RBS around to all our benefit, and I hope all the dissenters apologise when he does, or would they prefer the muppets to run RBS
Posted by: Geoff