A former water company boss has been handed a £270k bonus despite a parasite outbreak that sickened more than 140 people and caused a public health scandal.  Susan Davy stepped down as chief executive of Pennon, the group that owns South West Water, last year. She received the six-figure sum despite the board initially deciding to withhold the bonus following a public outcry. South West Water pumped drinking water to thousands of homes in Devon containing cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that causes a highly infectious gastrointestinal illness.  The outbreak in May 2024 impa…
  • Tenebris Nox@feddit.ukEnglish
    8·
    7 days ago

    You said:

    CEOs typically have a low base pay to bonus ratio, i.e. their bonus is their wage.

    In this case it’s untrue. Not sure what your salary’s like but for 99% of the country, £440k is not a “low base pay”. By quibbling about the headline you try to distract from the grotesque nature of the way the water companies function.

    • Gladaed@feddit.orgEnglish
      14·
      7 days ago

      I SAID RATIO. I never said their base pay wasn’t a living wage. You even quote me correctly and still interpret it your way.

      • Tenebris Nox@feddit.ukEnglish
        7·
        7 days ago

        Nothing to do with interpretation. Their base pay isn’t low (even as a ratio). You’ve not offered any evidence about the wage to bonus ratio (lack of evidence being your original gripe) You’re either willfully ideologically ignorant or disingenuous. I would guess from seeing other posts that it’s the latter.

          • Tenebris Nox@feddit.ukEnglish
            1·
            7 days ago

            Can you explain how that works for the least paid water CEO who earns £440k + bonus? Or the highest paid who receives £3.3 million + bonus?

            I think I understand that you’re making some sort of abstract, generalised point about CEO pay - but can you explain how that applies here to the pay of water fat cats?

            • Gladaed@feddit.orgEnglish
              1·
              7 days ago

              This applies here due to the phrasing of the headline - the headline implies that the CEO got rewarded for doing a bad job based on being paid a “big” bonus. But their pay structure is structured in a way where this is a usual and expected part of their pay.

              This isn’t really about what water company CEOs are paid but journalists using CEO pay structure for an outrage inducing headline.