Boni

The Telegraph today suggests that there was a little to-ing and fro-ing between BBC bosses and new chairman Lord Patten over their proposals for top pay. The key element was that the Executive Board and the DG would have their salaries measured against the median pay of all BBC staff; that ratio would be declared every year, and would decline. The idea was lifted from Will Hutton's proposals on controlling top pay in the public sector - so it was hardly surprising that the BBC should consider his other proposals, on bonuses. Here are the words of the great man...

 I propose a further innovation to eliminate the fat cat label: "earn-back". Every public sector leader – and the leadership team – should place at least 10% of their base pay at risk to be earned back by meeting performance targets. If they want to be entitled to any bonus, they should place a similar proportion of their base pay at risk – no better signal that they are committed to performance. The targets should be set by an independent remuneration committee on which one member of the workforce sits; employees know best with their inside information what challenges the organisation faces and where any bodies are buried.


But when this proposal was played back to Lord Patten, the Telegraph claims he bounced it, as looking a little too like a return to bonus culture.  It seems the original BBC Executive proposal, drafted by Lucy Adams, limited the "earn back" to 5%, but the Telegraph says the non-exec in charge of remuneration Marcus Aegius put it back to 10%.  Then the Good Lord stepped in...

The Telegraph doesn't say if the Executive also proposed having a member of the workforce monitor performane. What do you think ?