Bank of Valletta employees are up in arms following a decision by management not to pay its employees the full performance bonus in 2014, contrary to its stated intention.
The bank’s decision was communicated last week by CEO Charles Borg and was met with surprise and anger by many of the bank’s employees.
According to an internal circular issued by Mr Borg and seen by this newspaper, the bank decided that since not all appraisals related to last year’s performance bonuses were completed on time, no additional payments would be made.
The issue goes back to December, when the usual yearly appraisals of each employee’s performance targets should have been ready but weren’t. In the absence of a collective agreement, the bank decided to grant a one-time ex gratia bonus to all employees in recognition of their efforts throughout the year.
The ex gratia bonus was calculated on the average of the previous three-year performance appraisals and came with the proviso that “adjustments would be made to those employees who achieved a better actual score in 2014 than the average score used to calculate the bonus paid out in December”.
However, to the surprise of employees, many of whom were expecting the promised top-up, the bank appears to have gone back on that declaration.
It has now decided that “no additional bonus payments will be made for 2014”.
It seems that for certain privileged people, the bank has all the money in the world
“This is totally unacceptable and absurd,” an employee at the bank’s head office told the Times of Malta. “I was entitled to a few more hundreds than I was given last year and the bank is now asking me to forget everything. This is daylight robbery.”
A branch employee said the bank’s decision was unprecedented. “It seems that for certain privileged people, the bank has all the money in the world,” she said, referring to the €260,000 early retirement payout given to Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon. “However, now it seems that there is nothing left for us.”
Asked for a reaction, BOV remained tight-lipped, citing “commercial sensitivity”.
Asked whether this was a cost-cutting measure, the bank did not reply either.
Both unions representing bank employees disagreed with the decision. The Malta Union of Bank Employees condemned the decision, saying that “no category of employees must suffer due to a direct managerial flaw”.
The MUBE also accused the General Workers’ Union, which holds recognition, of accommodating the bank’s management,
The GWU said that although it disagreed with the measure it had requested the bank to at least issue additional payments to a number of staff who were discriminated against by the extraordinary way the performance bonus was distributed last December.
“The union condemns those individuals who by their actions have disrupted the performance system at BOV. At present the GWU and the bank’s HR are working in order for such a situation not to be repeated,” a GWU spokesman said.