Co-op workforce are given a cash bonus
FRONT-LINE staff at one of the Channel Island’s biggest retailers received a bonus – equivalent to a week’s pay – in recognition of their work during the pandemic.
Food store, pharmacy and funeral staff at The Channel Islands Co-operative Society were given the bonus and the entire workforce also received a minimum end-of-year bonus equivalent to a week’s pay.
‘Without our superb colleagues we would not have been able to provide the service we have to our members,’ said Mark Cox, chief executive officer of the society, writing in its 2021 annual report.
‘The board have recognised how challenging this year has been for our colleagues and are pleased to have been able to recognise their contribution by rewarding colleagues with a cash bonus for the year.’
The annual report also set out how the society had put in above-inflation pay rises and private health care for staff.
‘Our retail colleagues now receive industry-leading pay and benefits which they wholeheartedly deserve,’ said Mr Cox.
The pay and benefit changes were part of a top-down overhaul of the society’s remuneration policy.
Speaking to the Guernsey Press, Mr Cox said these changes had seen an equalisation of the potential bonus pot that the leadership team could receive compared with the rest of the workforce.
Previously, the executive leadership team had an enhanced bonus package.
Mr Cox also said the changes to executive remuneration had helped to fund the pay and benefit increases for colleagues, along with the closure of the society’s loss-making travel and medical businesses.
On remuneration, the society’s latest annual report said: ‘The executive leadership team’s remuneration has been set at the lower to mid-quartile of comparative remuneration data provided by remuneration specialists engaged by the committee. This positioning is in line with the society’s cooperative values.’
The society also published its wage ratio, something that large businesses now do. The ratios show the highest paid person’s income as a multiple of the lowest paid person’s income in an effort to promote transparency and a balanced distribution of earnings in society. Following the remuneration review, the society’s wage ratio has fallen from 23.3 to 1 to 11.9 to 1.
