Latest news with #bonuses
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Microsoft Offers Some Salespeople Extra Pay Following Layoffs
Microsoft Corp., fresh off a round of layoffs impacting its salespeople, is offering bonuses to some survivors. Additional pay for the fiscal year that just ended will go to workers whose annual payout 'was affected by systemic challenges or financial performance outcomes outside their control,' according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg. These employees will be paid as if they had reached a higher percentage of their quotas.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Warning to passengers as Ryanair plans BIGGER bonuses for staff spotting oversized bags
RYANAIR'S CEO is considering increasing bonuses paid to staff for spotting oversized luggage. The budget airline currently pays staff approximately €1.50 (£1.30) for stopping passengers with oversized bags from boarding the aircraft. 3 Currently, staff bonuses for doing this are capped at €80 (£70) a month. Passengers who are unlucky enough to get caught out by the airline's staff are charged a fee of up to €75 (£65) for bringing luggage that is larger than they paid for while booking their journey. Ryanair currently allows passengers to bring a small under-seat carry-on bag, measuring a maximum of 40x20x25cm for free. If a passenger wants to bring larger luggage or more bags with them, then they will need to pay an additional fee. Cabin bags can be no more than 10kg and must measure 55x40x20cm and incur a fee, as do larger bags up to 20kg placed in the hold. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said today that summer fares are expected to be the same as 2023, but added that he expects a boost in profitability for the airline by "controlling costs". Members of the European Parliament are currently pushing for airlines to allow passengers to bring on board a free personal item and a small cabin bag. However, Mr O'Leary predicted the proposals would not come into law due to a lack of space on planes. He told Morning Ireland: "We're flying largely full flights, about half the passengers can bring two bags and the other half can only bring one – because that's all that fits in the plane. "We're already struggling with that amount of baggage. "That's one of the reasons we are so aggressive about eliminating the scourge of passengers with excess baggage." I've major hack to find cheapest flights on Ryanair website - it's a game-changer and perfect for budget travellers The airline's CEO added that more than 99.9 per cent of passengers comply with baggage rules, with 'sizers' located at the airport. He shared: "We are happy to incentivise our [staff] with a share of those excess baggage fees, which we think will decline over the coming year or two. "It is about €1.50 (£1.30) per bag – and we're thinking of increasing it, so we eliminate it." Earlier this month, a leaked email revealed how airport staff earn bonuses for catching out passengers travelling with oversized luggage. The email described how Swissport ground handling staff could receive £1.20 per bag they seize from passengers with large bags at airport gates. The email was sent to Swissport employees at seven UK airports and described this as "the easyJet gate bag revenue incentive". 3 The email added that it was intended to "reward agents doing the right thing". Essentially, when an easyJet passenger's bag is identified as oversized and they are charged £48 at the gate for this, £1.20 of that is paid to the ground handler. At the time, a spokesman for Swissport told The Sun: "We serve our airline customers and apply their policies under terms and conditions for managing their operation. "We're highly professional and our focus is on delivering safe and efficient operations, which we do day in and day out for four million flights per year." And a spokesperson for easyJet told The Sun: "EasyJet is focused on ensuring our ground handling partners apply our policies correctly and consistently in fairness to all our customers. "Our bag policies and options are well understood and we remind customers of this when booking, before they travel and on their boarding pass which means a very small proportion of customers who don't comply will be charged at the airport." Ryanair hand luggage size change FOLLOWING Ryanair's announcement of changing its hand luggage rules, here are the most up-to-date guidelines. Ryanair recently announced that they would be changing the size of their hand luggage allowance from 40x20x25cm to 40x30x20cm - an increase of 5cm. The change in size means that Ryanair's free hand luggage size has increased from an overall capacity of 20 litres to 24 litres. All airports will now need to change the size of the baggage sizers for the airline, to be able to check bags against the new measurements. The size change comes after new EU rules have been set out, which will ban airlines from charging for small carry on bags. A Ryanair spokesperson said: "Following the new EU minimum bag size of 40x30x15cm, Ryanair will increase its max 'personal bag' dimensions to 40x30x20cm, so that Ryanair's 'personal bag' allowance is bigger than the EU standard. "This change will be implemented over the coming weeks, as our airport bag sizers are adjusted." Ryanair is also calling on all UK passengers to take action after 7,000 delayed in one day alone this week. Plus, Brit tourists have been left stranded after a Ryanair flight to a holiday hotspot island 'accidentally leaves every suitcase back in UK'. 3
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ryanair boss could increase bonus for staff fining passengers over luggage size
Ryanair is considering increasing the bonuses it pays to staff for identifying passengers with oversized luggage, the airline's chief executive has said. The low-cost airline currently pays staff around £1.30 for spotting passengers who are bringing oversized bags onto flights. It is understood that those bonuses are capped at £70 a month for each individual staff member. Passengers who are found to be bringing oversized bags onto Ryanair flights are charged a fee of up to £65. Ursula von "Derlayed-Again" must protect overflights during national ATC strikes or QUIT! @PhilippeTabarot @vonderleyen — Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 17, 2025 Ryanair currently includes a small carry-on bag – capped at a size of 40x20x25cm and weight of 10kg – with every ticket. Passengers must pay a fee if they want to bring larger luggage, or if they want to bring multiple bags. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said on Monday that summer fares would, on average, be the same rate as 2023 – but added that he expects a boost in profitability for the airline by 'controlling costs'. Members of the European Parliament are pushing for airlines to allow passengers to be allowed to bring on free an on-board personal item and small hand luggage. However, Mr O'Leary predicted the proposal will not come into law due to a lack of space. Speaking to the business news on RTE's Morning Ireland, he said: 'We're flying largely full flights, about half the passengers can bring two bags and the other half can only bring one – because that's all that fits in the plane. 'We're already struggling with that amount of baggage. 'That's one of the reasons we are so aggressive about eliminating the scourge of passengers with excess baggage.' Mr O'Leary said more than 99.9% of passengers comply with baggage rules, with 'sizers' located within the airport. He said: 'We are happy to incentivise our (staff) with a share of those excess baggage fees, which we think will decline over the coming year or two.' Recommended Reading: Holidaymaker slams 'jobsworth' Ryanair staff for £75 charge Ryanair asks passengers to take action as flights cancelled and travel disrupted Ryanair call for two-drink limit on passengers at airports The chief executive added: 'It is about 1.50 euro per bag – and we're thinking of increasing it, so we eliminate it.' Meanwhile, Mr O'Leary predicted that US President Donald Trump will 'chicken out' of introducing increased tariffs for Europe on August 1. Asked if he anticipated tariffs applying to Boeing aircraft being delivered to the airline, he said: 'Trump will probably chicken out again, I suspect the August 1 will get moved to September or October. 'We have taken delivery of five aircraft in the first quarter but no tariffs applied to those aircraft 'There is a risk of tariffs being introduced by the Europeans or the Americans in some tit-for-tat in August, September or October – but Boeing will have to pay those tariffs.' Mr O'Leary said Ryanair would work with Boeing to ensure no tariffs are applied to commercial aircraft, which he said would be bad for the manufacturer's exports to Europe as well as Airbus's sales to the US – as well as the Irish aircraft leasing industry. He added: 'There's increasing optimism, though, in Washington that commercial aircraft will be exempt from any tariffs – if Trump ever gets around to actually imposing tariffs.'
BreakingNews.ie
4 days ago
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Ryanair staff can earn up to €80 per month in bonuses for spotting oversized baggage
Ryanair staff can earn up to €80 a month in bonuses for catching passengers with oversized luggage. It comes after around 200,000 Ryanair passengers were hit with a €75 fine last year, and it has now emerged that staff can earn €1.50 for every oversized bag they catch. Advertisement The airline said the scheme helps reduce delays, but insists most passengers follow the rules. Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Conor Pope, doubts the policy will put people off from flying with Ryanair. Speaking on Newstalk, he said: "They have rules. They're not considered the most friendly airline in the world, but people know what they're getting, and they're happy with the service that Ryanair provides, generally speaking."
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Outwitted': have water companies managed to sidestep Labour's bonus ban?
It started before the election. Against a background of growing fury about the conduct of the water companies, Labour promised to end the injustice of their executives getting bonuses while sewage was dumped in England's rivers and seas. In March 2024, Steve Reed, the then shadow environment secretary, said: 'Since the last election the water bosses have paid themselves £25m in bonuses. Labour will ban the payment of bonuses to polluting water bosses until they have cleaned up their filth.' The policy became a significant part of the election campaign two months later. The manifesto promised: 'We will give regulators new powers to block the payment of bonuses to executives who pollute our waterways.' Once in power, Labour went straight into action. One of the first big laws it passed was the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025. The legislation contains provisions to ban performance-related payments to senior executives of water companies that repeatedly pollute England's waterways with sewage. Reed, now environment secretary, described it as a means to end the 'undeserved' payments. Under the act, the government banned six water firms including Thames Water from awarding bonuses for this financial year after seven major pollution incidents. However, it was not long before flaws in this plan began to emerge. Thames Water has faced particular challenges this year, with regular discussions over its possible collapse, even as customers' bills soar to pay for infrastructure. In February, as the legislation was going through parliament, a court ruled that Thames could proceed with a controversial £3bn loan from a group of creditors, at a 9.75% interest rate, in order to stabilise the company. In May, the chair of Thames, Adrian Montague, told MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee that bosses were in line for 'substantial' bonuses linked to the loan, on the insistence of creditors. The company needed to pay the bonuses, he said, 'because we have to keep staff. It is a very competitive marketplace out there … If we are unable to pay bonuses, people will come knocking and try to pick out of us the best staff we have. That is not in customers' interests.' Soon afterwards, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced plans to use the act to block Thames bosses taking bonuses. A week later, Reed appeared in front of the same committee, telling MPs that the bonuses had been withdrawn. At the same hearing Montague conceded in a letter that he may have misspoken when he said the bonuses were insisted upon by creditors. Reed told the committee that Thames Water had 'appeared to be attempting to circumvent that ban, calling their bonuses something different so they can continue to pay them'. Thames responded, saying that rather than having been withdrawn, the bonuses were paused. But in July the Guardian revealed that Thames had already paid bonuses totalling £2.46m to 21 managers on 30 April, and was refusing to claw the money back. Although it had paused the bonus scheme, or management retention plan (MRP), it did not promise that the next tranches would not also be paid, with the managers due to receive the same sum again in December and a further £10.8m collectively next June. Under the Water (Special Measures) Act, the only bonuses that can be stopped to those at the very top of the company, such as the chief executive, the chief financial officer and the chair. Chris Weston, the chief executive of Thames Water, has voluntarily declined his 300% bonus, because, he said, it would have been a 'distraction'. The water campaigner and former Undertones frontman, Feargal Sharkey, campaigned with Keir Starmer during the general election. But Sharkey has been left unimpressed by the bonus ban. He said: 'Driving forward eye-catching policies designed to do nothing more than grab headlines is no way to fix the biggest problem facing this country in the 21st century, the government has been outwitted and outmanoeuvred by the water companies.' Was the Thames package designed to circumvent the rules? Documents it released to the Efra committee show that when designing the payments package, the company hired top consultants and law firms including Rothschild & Co, Linklaters and Mercer to help it come up with a retention programme that was legally sound and would get past regulators. During Thames board meetings set up to discuss the bonuses, members asked 'if any pressure to waive bonus would be a risk generally or under the water (special measures) bill', according to the documents The board was told the bonuses were in line with the specifications of the legislation: 'The [remuneration] committee requested to reconfirm whether the MRP was consistent with the Water (Special Measures) Act and related Ofwat consultation and it was confirmed that the MRP was a retention payment rather than a bonus, and had no performance-related element. As such, it was not restricted by the Water (Special Measures) Act.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Thames Water and its lawyers and advisers believe they could pay its chief executive and chief financial officer under the scheme if they wanted, because they are retention payments. If this loophole remains open, any water company that breaches pollution rules could continue to pay out millions in bonuses to their executives, as long as the payments are not labelled performance related. In a letter to the Efra committee in July, Reed would not directly answer whether these bonuses would be banned. He said: 'Should Ofwat determine Thames Water have breached the performance-related payments rule, then I expect them to take appropriate enforcement action.' A Defra spokesperson followed up and said: 'It is for companies to follow these new rules and help rebuild trust with their customers.' Water companies can also get round the bonus ban by hiking the pay of executives to make up for the lack of compensation. The Guardian revealed this week that Southern Water has nearly doubled its chief executive Lawrence Gosden's annual pay package to £1.4m. Southern has already been allowed to increase average bills by 53% over the next five years and is appealing to the Competition and Markets Authority to charge more. Ofwat says it may bring forward a planned review of the bonus ban, currently set for 2027, to look at the scope of the rules and see whether the net needs to be widened. The regulator added that executive salaries were a matter for the water companies, but said it expected them to be appropriate when taking bonus bans and company performance into account. A Defra spokesperson said: 'Undeserved bonuses for water company bosses have now been banned as part of the government's plan to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good. Any instances of companies trying to circumvent the new rules are completely unacceptable. 'The government will leave no stone unturned against any bosses being made these outrageous payments.' Southern Water said the rise in its chief executive's salary was not an attempt to evade the bonus ban but part of a 'long-term incentive plan' as part of an effort to turnaround the company. It added that the payments were 'common industry practice'. A Thames Water spokesperson said: 'The company's CEO is not party to the MRP and has received no payments. None of the retention payments have been funded by customers. Full details of the plan have been shared with our economic regulator and the Efra committee.'
