TM fat cats cash in as staff face job cuts, pay freeze
THE TRINITY Mirror group’s executive directors have been rewarded with free share handouts worth more than £800,000 and pocketed tens of thousands in profit while imposing job cuts and a pay freeze on the group’s employees.
NUJ members at Media Wales in Cardiff have uncovered evidence of the share awards to chief executive Sly Bailey, finance director Vijay Vaghela and group legal director Paul Vickers.
Sly Bailey announced last November that there would be no pay rise in 2009 because of poor trading conditions, debt repayment and pension contributions. She said the freeze would apply to all employees, including directors, adding that no bonuses would be paid either.
But in April she was awarded 270,270 TM shares — which were then trading at 28.5p. Since then the market has soared and as the Journalist went to press they were at £1.92, meaning that they are now worth over £520,000. Vijay Vaghela’s and Paul Vickers’s shares are worth £239,000 and £209,000 respectively.
On top of this, in June the three directors exercised an option to “buy” more shares, which according to the London Stock Exchange they were given for free, and immediately sold the bulk of them, clearing £5,995.05, £3,241.56 and £2,516.85 respectively.
Martin Shipton, NUJ Father of Chapel at Media Wales, said: “It beggars belief that at a time when these directors have been slashing jobs and freezing the pay of those left behind, they have been rewarded so handsomely in this way.
“Nothing was said about these share handouts at the time of the pay freeze, when much was made of the fact that it applied to directors too. This is an insult to every Trinity Mirror employee, and especially to those whose jobs are on the line.”