Gannett execs get millions in bonuses for imposing worker furloughs

Source: Gannett Blog

The board of directors will likely pay top executives millions of dollars more in bonuses this year, in part for making employees take unpaid furloughs during the current quarter, company documents show.

Last year, for example, the board specifically cited furlough savings as a reason to award $3.5 million in cash bonuses to the company's five highest-paid executives with their 2009 pay.

"The company achieved substantial expense reductions through a variety of efforts," the board's four-member executive compensation committee told shareholders on March 18, "including continued centralization and consolidation efforts, significant headcount reductions, furloughs, and salary freezes and reductions."

... These are the fourth mandatory unpaid leaves the company has announced over the past two years. The current round, which ends March 27, also is the third consecutive first quarter in which GCI has required furloughs, a worrisome sign that the company is now locked in a cycle of early year cost cutting amid continued declines in revenue.

Read more: http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-furloughs-helped-spur-4m-in.html

The cuts are inevitable.

But I do agree that no one should get a bonus for doing this. If anything it should be paid back to investors.

It wasn't much, but it paid the bills.