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Nearly 600 Transport for London executives earned more than £ 100,000 last year – including a record £ 626,000 for a sacked director, Standard said.
The scale of the payments, which came as TfL sought another £ 900m in taxpayer-funded money to cover running costs, was described by the government as “incredible, deafening amounts of money”.
A total of 597 TfL and Crossrail employees earned six figures in 2021/22, compared to 455 in the previous financial year.
This includes £ 626,037 paid to Vernon Everit, who left TfL in February after a boardroom exchange to save money.
Mr Everit, who worked for TfL for 14 years, received £ 352,697 for losing an office in addition to a £ 200,294 salary and a £ 71,180 bonus. This is considered to be the largest amount of annual remuneration ever paid by TfL.
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Salaries – and almost £ 1.6 million in bonuses for 37 workers who have left or left – were quietly approved the day after the platinum weekend, when London was hit by a 24-hour subway strike called by RMT to protect jobs. and pensions.
The revelation will create difficulties for Sadiq Khan as he seeks to win a final bailout for TfL and a long-term capital financing deal to upgrade the metro and bus network and repair roads and bridges.
The mayor has already proposed eliminating 22 bus routes and reducing frequencies to nearly 60 more to save money instead of cutting TfL pensions. He threatened with more serious cuts – including in the subway – if the Ministry of Transport did not comply with his demands.
A government source said: “These are incredible, deafening amounts of money, taken only days after the mayor called for poverty and announced massive bus layoffs.
“Last week we said that these bus layoffs were unnecessary and were made only to make political sense. We said that there are many other things that TfL can reform first. These payments strengthen our vision. “
Susan Hall, leader of the GLA Conservatives, said the figures were “an insult to hard-working Londoners”.
She said: “We all want a long-term deal to fund TfL, but the mayor is not helping the case of London, looking so cavalier with his finances during such financial uncertainty.
A spokeswoman for Mr Hahn said on Thursday afternoon: “The mayor understands that Londoners will be shocked by these figures and he is aware of the TfL that these one-off payments to outgoing TfL employees must be kept to a minimum.
“These huge departure payments are a legacy of the incredible salaries and long notice periods agreed with the previous mayor. [Boris Johnson]on which Sadiq has taken action.
“Since Sadik took office in 2016, the number of people with a salary above £ 100,000 in TfL has dropped by nearly 20 percent and the mayor has agreed with TfL management that no new bonuses should be paid until TfL reaches financial sustainability until April 2023. ”
Many TfL employees have seen their pay exceed £ 100,000 as bonuses won in 2019/20 but postponed due to the pandemic have been added to payment packages.
Others reached six figures, working overtime. This includes engineers working on the extension of the north line to Battersea, the transformation of the Bank station and the integration of the Elizabeth line into TfL.
Among the best earners in the last 12 months were:
- Chief Financial Officer Simon Kilonbeck, who received £ 407,461, including a £ 77,825 bonus.
- Ground Transport Chief Gareth Powell, who received £ 380,294, including a £ 54,132 bonus.
- Big Project Manager Stuart Harvey, who won £ 375,276, including a £ 84,365 bonus.
- Underground boss Andy Lord, who won £ 345,970, including a £ 23,711 bonus.
Crossrail CEO Mark Wilde, who left TfL when the Elizabeth line opened last month, received £ 447,717. He did not receive a bonus in 2019/20.
Although the number of passengers is still below pre-pandemic levels, TfL’s workforce increased by 239 employees to 27,034 in 2021/2022. The payroll increased by £ 220 million to £ 2.24 billion.
TfL Commissioner Andy Byford, who was appointed in July 2020, won £ 355,000. He did not receive a bonus.
TfL is expected to negotiate a system next week that will allow directors to receive a bonus of up to 20 percent of their salary, and Mr. Byford up to 50 percent if TfL is “killed” on a daily basis by next April and other purposes. for implementation have been achieved.
TfL removed the bonuses for 2020/21 as it struggled to stay afloat. It requires £ 5bn of government money to make up for lost fee revenue.
An independent review found that salaries and bonuses in TfL were less generous than those available in the private sector.
Mr Byford says TfL suffers from a “brain drain” driven in part by better wages elsewhere. Mr Kilonbeck resigned in April and Mr Powell will leave soon.
A total of 242 “golden goodbyes” were agreed with the leaving staff, costing £ 12.5 million.
Kay Carbury, chairman of TfL’s remuneration committee, said TfL “is working hard to reduce operating costs and become more efficient.”
She said: “It is extremely important to be able to attract and retain people with the necessary technical skills and experience to provide sophisticated programs and keep London moving.
Non-Tube TfL employees with lower pay rates were offered a three percent pay rise yesterday, but mid-level managers were told they would not be paid. An insider today described the bonuses that were revealed in TfL’s annual reports as “outrageous.”
Vernon Everit: He left TfL with a payout of £ 626,037
/ TfL
Mr Everitt was appointed Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester by Mayor Andy Burnham in March.
TfL said his compensation “reflects the length of his employment at TfL” and that his compensation included one year’s notice.
Mr Everit declined to comment.
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