Rail firms were slammed yesterday after the boss of Britain’s biggest transport company was awarded an £800,000 bonus linked to meeting diversity targets.
Graham Sutherland, chief executive of First Group, landed the performance-related payout despite its three rail companies cancelling tens of thousands of trains over the last year.
The 60-year-old’s bonus – nearly one-and-a-half times the size of his salary – comes after he met performance targets including ensuring the multi-billion pound company made ‘progress’ on diversity and environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns.
Such targets have been dubbed ‘woke capitalism’ by critics.
Union bosses condemned the size of the payment, while ex-ministers said rail chiefs on huge salaries ought to be judged on whether they can run services profitably.
Graham Sutherland, the chief executive of First Group, has won a £800,000 bonus after meeting the company’s diversity targets
The row comes after the Daily Mail revealed how rail chiefs were continuing to pocket huge bonuses despite failing to enforce new minimum service level laws implemented by Rishi Sunak’s government to minimise the impact of strikes.
Mr Sutherland is in line to receive the £800,000 bonus on top of his salary of £567,000, taking his total pay packet for this year – including pension contributions and other benefits – to £1.4million.
It comes after more than 61,000 trains were partially or fully cancelled across Avanti, South Western Railway and Great Western Railway – the three train franchises owned by First Group – over the last year, according to analysis of Office of Rail and Road figures by The Telegraph.
That is an increase of one fifth compared with the 12 months running up to the introduction of the Covid pandemic lockdowns in 2020.
Critics claim that rewarding executives for meeting ESG and diversity goals threatens the nation’s prosperity, with former Conservative minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg last month warning of the dangers of ‘woke capitalism’ if Labour won the election.
Steve Norris, who was a transport minister under Sir John Major, told the paper: ‘It’s disappointing that First Group doesn’t appear to recognise that its principal job is to run trains and buses profitably.
‘Ensuring high standards in terms of ESG and diversity should be taken for granted in a major PLC, not the basis on which the CEO is paid.’
The bonus comes despite over 61,000 trains on FirstGroup franchises were delayed or cancelled over the last year
Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, claimed the bonus showed ‘poor performance is rewarded for the CEO’ while rail staff go ‘five years without a pay rise’.
‘We know who the hypocrites and bad actors are – those who have plundered the industry for 30 years,’ he added.
In response, First Group stressed that many of the factors behind delays and cancellations – such as bad weather and infrastructure problems – were outside its control.
It added that it had invested more than £120million over the past year, primarily on electric buses.
Meanwhile its rail financial performance was ‘driven’ by open access companies Hull Trains and Lumo rather than those operating under Government contracts.
A spokesman said: ‘Last year FirstGroup was the fifth-best performing company in the FTSE 250 and this strong financial performance enabled us to pay around £1.6billion in wages to our 30,000 people nationwide.’
