Irish Water Paid €10.1 Million in Performance Pay
Irish Water has given more than €10.1 million in performance-related pay to its staff over the last two years.
The company gave out €5.176 million in bonuses to 789 eligible employees, an increase of more than 4 per cent from the previous year.
This was an increase from the €4.96 million spent on 765 eligible employees in 2020, according to information released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Irish Water declined to provide a list of the top twenty performance-based rewards over the past two years, citing that this could identify individual employees.
However, they reported that the average performance-based bonus for the top twenty employees in 2021 was €19,171 per individual. This was a minor decrease from 2020 when the twenty employees who received the largest incentives split €385,460, or €19,273 apiece.
However, they reported that the average performance-based bonus for the top twenty employees in 2021 was €19,171 per individual. This was a minor decrease from 2020 when the twenty employees who received the largest incentives split €385,460, or €19,273 apiece.
Irish Water stated that their managing director was ineligible for such a bonus and was therefore omitted from the released data.
The water utility stated that all performance-based compensation was completely taxable and did not go into pension calculations when employees retired. According to them, it was directly proportional to "rigorously judged performance" according to predetermined individual, team, and corporate goals.
Before a "final rating" was determined, each employee was subjected to a comprehensive midyear assessment and a year-end evaluation.
Over the previous two years, Irish Water has cut overtime costs to a bare minimum, paying just €116,000 to a tiny number of employees for working outside normal business hours.
In 2019, overtime charges amounted to €64,085 for 34 employees, compared to €52,655 for 22 employees in 2018. In 2021, the average compensation for the top twenty overtime earners was €2,629, a decrease from €3,010 in 2020.
The utility stated that overtime was only performed when necessary and that the scheduling and duration were at management's discretion.
Overtime is paid during the week at a rate of one and a half times pay between normal finishing hours and midnight, and at double time in the early hours of the morning.
They said double time is also paid for all work carried out on Sundays and bank holidays.
A spokesman said: "The pay model adopted by Irish Water is consistent with the direction of similar commercial semi-state organisations.
"It meets the utility's criteria to have a pay model that is fully compatible with Irish Water's desire to promote a high-performance culture whilst controlling costs to create a sustainable business.
"It is also a key element in Irish Water’s ability to retain and attract staff now and into the future to ensure the utility continues to provide essential public water services."
Source: RTE
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