You'd have to have been in a coma for the last six months to be unaware of the financial crisis that is gripping the world. One of the current aspects of it is that, here in the UK as well as elsewhere, vast sums of public money have been spent in propping up financial institutions. There is a great outcry about how those institutions which have taken so much money, can still somehow find cash to dole out to their employees in the form of bonuses.
One thing that seems to have gone more or less unremarked is this interesting use of the word "bonus". The argument being repeated all over the place is that the Government has no power, even in these partly nationalised institutions, to prevent the bonuses being paid because they are contractually obliged to pay them and risk being sued by irate executives if they don't get the £50,000, £100,000 or whatever that they feel they are owed.
Hang on a minute! Contractually obliged to pay a bonus? Let's grab a dictionary or two.
bonus: something given, paid or received above what is due or expected (Collins English Dictionary)
bonus: something in addition to what is expected or strictly due as a) money or an equivalent given in addition to an employee's usual compensation (Merriam Webster On Line)
bonus: an extra amount of money that is given to you as a present or reward in addition to the money you were expecting (Cambridge Dictionaries On Line)
So, we're all agreed then, a bonus is something you get in addition to what you are supposed to have so how on earth can anything that is contractual be considered as a bonus? The truth is that these so-called bonuses are nothing of the sort, because if they were then there would be no legal reason to pay them. Interesting how bankers can manipulate the meanings of words as well as the financial markets.
And don't even get me started on their novel interpretation of the word "sorry".
One thing that seems to have gone more or less unremarked is this interesting use of the word "bonus". The argument being repeated all over the place is that the Government has no power, even in these partly nationalised institutions, to prevent the bonuses being paid because they are contractually obliged to pay them and risk being sued by irate executives if they don't get the £50,000, £100,000 or whatever that they feel they are owed.
Hang on a minute! Contractually obliged to pay a bonus? Let's grab a dictionary or two.
bonus: something given, paid or received above what is due or expected (Collins English Dictionary)
bonus: something in addition to what is expected or strictly due as a) money or an equivalent given in addition to an employee's usual compensation (Merriam Webster On Line)
bonus: an extra amount of money that is given to you as a present or reward in addition to the money you were expecting (Cambridge Dictionaries On Line)
So, we're all agreed then, a bonus is something you get in addition to what you are supposed to have so how on earth can anything that is contractual be considered as a bonus? The truth is that these so-called bonuses are nothing of the sort, because if they were then there would be no legal reason to pay them. Interesting how bankers can manipulate the meanings of words as well as the financial markets.
And don't even get me started on their novel interpretation of the word "sorry".
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