Only one in five companies intended to give Christmas bonuses in 2003, and
54 per cent required staff to work during the holiday period, according to
research from the Chartered Management Institute.
The study of 2,400 managers revealed wide regional variations in the payment
of seasonal bonuses.
The South East was the most generous, with 29 per cent of employers paying
out, compared with just 6 per cent of employers in Yorkshire.
In addition, the findings also show that festive stinginess even extended to
the Christmas party, with 65 per cent of employers expecting staff to make a
financial contribution, while 76 per cent asked their employees to pay £20 or
more towards the event.
Meanwhile, the TUC has found that more than 3 million employees didn’t
receive any holiday pay for not working on Christmas Day. Three-quarters of a
million people worked on the day itself without any guarantee of extra pay, and
35,000 received nothing at all for their efforts.
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TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "It is about time Scrooge
bosses had to give holiday pay. A bit of good will from the Government would
make Christmas a lot merrier for millions of UK employees and their
families." Â www.managers.org.uk
