United Airlines has had to backtrack rapidly as a proposed new lottery bonus scheme was met with universal disapproval by the airline’s staff. Instead of paying each member of staff a US$375 quarterly bonus based on meeting on-time departures, on-time arrivals and other performance-related targets, the company had proposed a lottery-style bonus system for eligible employees.
United Airlines’ president, Scott Kirby, told employees at the beginning of this week that the lottery program was being rethought “to review your feedback and consider the right way to move ahead.” Employees had expressed their dissatisfaction through signing an online petition condemning the decision and using the internal company forum to voice concerns.
The lottery was formulated to offer a quarterly lottery bonus that would be open to all rank-and-file employees providing they had a perfect attendance record. Overall, there would have been 1,361 employees who could win a bonus, a considerable drop in numbers as the airline employs over 80,000 people. One person would win a top prize of $100,000, while other prizes would include 20 Mercedes sedans, 20 vacation or alternative US$20,000 cash packages, or 30 lesser vacation or alternative US$10,000 cash packages. There would also be 1,000 cash prizes of US$2,000.
As one worker commented “When no one ‘qualifies’ because they called out sick due to the most awful flu in years, or sick children, or life… the company just makes more money for itself.”
Last year the company paid out US$87 million in performance-related bonuses, while under the new system, though only for rank-and-file workers, it would pay out approximately US$18 million in rewards, costing the company far less.
