UK
Lucky staff left behind at Lehman
19 November 2008
It’s starting to look as if the 1,000 or so Lehman people working to wind down their former employer’s European operations are actually fairly fortunate.
According to a person who claims to be working in the middle office at Lehman commenting on an article yesterday, some people still at Lehman have just been offered contracts for 2009 and 2010, including a 25% increase in salary and a guaranteed bonus.
A spokesperson for administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) can’t say whether this is exactly so, but confirms that contracts have just been issued to keep ex-Lehman people on board. “We’ve offered people performance-related bonuses in order to keep them working with us and keep them motivated,” she confirms.
Several other sources point to the benefits of working in the Lehman carcass. A recent article in the Financial Times said Lehman traders were offered a new package with a ‘hefty bonus’ component to close their positions.
And another article in the Telegraph suggested the average PwC employee working on the administration team is earning the annualised equivalent of £693k.
The other advantage of working for the remains of Lehman is that you probably won't get made redundant. The downside is that it won’t last forever. “You have to remember that this bank is ultimately going to cease to exist – it will be slowly wound down,” the PwC spokesperson points out.
don't overblow the 25% increase in salary - it's to compensate loss of perks/benefits (judged to amount to that value) that were in lehman contracts and won't be continued while in administration (e.g. insurance coverages, pension contributions...). But yes very sweet deal regardless, with the guarantee of a job and bonus (90% of prior) until 2010. and if lomas is right and the wind down takes years and years.......
Informed 19 Nov 2008
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