Last month it was revealed that Barclay’s is still paying its already filthy rich executives grotesque amounts of money, in cash, as bonuses. Despite a drop in the amount of bonuses being paid out from 42% down to 38% of total revenue, a recent change in rules surrounding bonuses means that top bankers have had a cap on the amount of cash paid upfront. Instead of being able to take away £65,000, in cash, they will now be able to take almost 3 times that away – £185,250. While ordinary working people are shouldering the financial burden of the crisis, these greedy bankers get richer and richer!
Bank workers made pay for bosses crisis
While 2.5 million people are already unemployed and bonuses increase threefold for their top bankers, Barclay’s made the announcement in February that it would cut 3,700 jobs. The majority of these job losses would come from the retail side of the bank. Ordinary workers now face redundancy when they played no part in the greed and speculation that top Barclay’s bankers engaged in leading up to the crisis. These super-rich executives have nice fat pensions and high bonuses if they get the sack, but for bank workers who are also suffering as a result of cutbacks will get nothing compared to the bosses. The sheer amount of jobs going at Barclay’s seems totally absurd considering that despite taking a major hit from the crisis, the bank still managed a profit of over £200 million last year. If banks like Barclay’s claim that despite massive profits, they have to make staff redundant then the bank should be fully nationalised on the basis of democratic public ownership. Banks could then be run by representatives of banking workers, trade union representatives, the wider working class, as well as the government.
