THOUSANDS of bank staff in Halifax will receive bonus payments of up to £2,000 in this month's pay packets.
That is despite HBOS losing over £10 billion last year and the Government taking a controlling stake in Lloyds Banking Group.
Union leaders pressed for bonus payments to the lower paid to be honoured arguing that they formed part of annual salari
es.
The Government agreed but has intervened to limit bonuses and defer payments to higher-grade staff.
Accord Union general secretary Ged Nichols said full details were not yet available.
"It is clear that bonuses in HBOS will be lower this year. However, the good news is that the majority of HBOS employees will be receiving payments in March."
Mr Nichols said the union argued the lowest paid staff in Britain's banks depended on bonuses to make ends meet and that the banks had used share schemes and bonus arrangements to keep down general pay levels.
"We are, therefore, pleased that cash bonuses of up to £2,000 will be paid and that other bonuses that could have been lost will instead be deferred – although the deferral will be a disappointment for those affected.
"However, we think the limit imposed on cash bonuses impacts at too low a level. HBOS staff who are paid £39,000 per year are not 'fat cats'."
Mr Nichols said it had been confirmed that staff in the former HBOS Corporate Division will get no bonuses at all and in the future the union would campaign to move away from the current bonus systems to reward staff through better salaries.
Halifax MP Linda Riordan said it was right that lower-paid staff should receive bonuses.
She said: "These are people who, on average, are earning £17,000 a year and their bonus will be around £1,000.
"We should not be penalising these people. It is the former management who need to be called to account, across the banking sector, who through personal greed have disgraced this industry.
"I also welcome the fact that the board at Lloyds have said they will forgo their payments."
Lloyds Banking Group confirmed non-management HBOS and Lloyds TSB staff will receive bonuses of up to £2,000.
After lengthy talks the Lloyds Banking Group has joined the Government's "Asset Protection Scheme" which has seen the state take a 65 per cent stake in the bank in return for insuring £260 billion of loans.
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