29p an hour vs a £1 million-plus golden hello

Jun 01 2004 by Brian Amble Print This Article

Two stories form today’s Evening Standard.

Stuart Rose, the new boss of troubled British retail institution Marks & Spencer, has been lured to the embattled high street giant with a "golden hello" of £1.25 million, together with an annual salary of £850,000.

The Standard says that on top of this he could receive as much as four times his salary in share options.

The ousted M&S chief executive, Roger Holmes, is is in line for a pay-off of £600,000 while departing chairman Luc Vendevelde is set to receive around £450,000.

Meanwhile, a hundred miles or so to the north of London, a tribunal in Leicester heard that a man with learning difficulties was paid 29p-an-hour for stacking shelves in a cash-and-carry, later increased to 96p an hour.

That equates to about £2,000 a year.

He was awarded £5,000 in compensation which his former employer at least had the grace to pay up without a fuss.

Worker was paid 29p per hour


M&S chief's £1m golden hello