Persimmon ‘adds insult to injury’ with its low pay for workers
HOUSEBUILDING giant Persimmon came under fresh fire last night for low pay rates for some rank and file staff despite preparing to reward bosses with a total of more than £800 million in bonuses.
Around 450 workers at the FTSE 100 company, including builders and cleaners, receive less than the ‘real living wage’ of £8.75 an hour or £10.20 an hour in London – the minimum amount independent analysts say people need to get by. All staff do receive the national living wage of £7.50 an hour for employees over 25, which is the legal minimum.
The furore over low-paid workers comes a week before chief executive Jeff Fairburn will be able to cash around £50 million in shares – the first part of his huge bonus worth a total of up to £130 million. Other executives are also set for multi- million pound handouts, along with around 150 regional managers.
The huge bonuses have been criticised as being heavily inflated by Help to Buy, the taxpayer-funded scheme that helps first-time buyers get on the housing ladder.
Chairman Nicholas Wrigley and Jonathan Davie, a senior director, resigned earlier this month for failing to put a cap on the scheme when it was introduced in 2012. Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said: ‘The fact that they’re not even a real living wage employer – it’s adding insult to injury really. If they’re on these sort of riches at the top, it emphasises the gulf.’ Responsible investment charity ShareAction estimates that it would cost Persimmon around £1 million to pay the 450 workers the real living wage – or less than one per cent of Fairburn’s jackpot. Clare Richards at ShareAction said: ‘As we head into 2018, there is really less and less justification for this glaring inequality within the pay structures.’ Around a third of FTSE 100 companies are accredited real living wage employers. Persimmon declined to comment.