Australian Post executives have been slammed for “unfair” bonus structures that reward top executives with fat pay cheques while the bulk of frontline workers miss out.
But chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo says the payments are incentives and not bonuses.
“We certainly don't see them as bonuses at all. We have contractual arrangements around the remuneration that provides two components of remuneration: One is fixed and irrespective of performance and another part is payable subject performance,” he told a senate estimates hearing.
“Clearly, performance outcomes from year to year may well see different payments being made.”
The hearing was toxjmtzywld that executives at the taxpayer-owned business earning between $400,000 and $500,000 received an average bonus of $233,333 in 2021, an increase of 6 per cent on the previous year.
Those on base salaries of between $300,000 and $400,000 received on average a bonus of $168,387 in 2021, an increase of 22 per cent on the previous year.
Labor’s Anne Urquhart noted that some of the rise in bonuses were six times the rate of inflation.
But just 152 out of 32,755 frontline Australia Post workers earning less than $100,000 a year received a bonus. In 2020, 99 per cent of staff in that award band received a bonus payment.
Asked if the cash splash made a mockery of the government’s claim to crack down on public sector bonuses, Financial Services Minister Jane Hume said the Coalition had made its expectations clear.
“The government expects all entities, including government business enterprises, to act ethically and to adhere to high standards regarding the expenditure of money as the public also rightly expects,” she told the committee.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young said she was “gobsmacked” by the incentives and asked executives if they had learnt anything from the Christine Holgate scandal.
“I urge the Australia Post board to think a bit more clearly about the message they’re sending, particularly when frontline workers are not the ones who are getting the bulk of that money,” the senator said.
Ms Holgate left Australia Post after it was revealed that she spent $20,000 on luxury watches for executives behind a deal with the big banks.
Despite the criticism, Australia Post chief executive Paul Graham noted the challenges associated with the organisation being competitive with their salary offerings.
“It creates some difficulties and challenges but that is the nature of what we are as a (government business).”
