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Local Tech Wire
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Thanksgiving weekend news about bankrupt executives raking in more than $7 million in bonuses left the editorial writers at the Toronto Sun with a case of heartburn.
“There may be good reasons why Nortel Networks Corp. is handing out salary hikes and bonuses (yet again) this year, but it will be hard pressed to justify it to former employees fighting for severance packages or pensions,” wrote Paul Berton in an editorial titled
As Local Tech Wire reported Friday, the CBC in Canada uncovered documents that being awarded to 72 executives. Fourteen of those already make more than $500,000 a year.
The Star railed against Nortel for awarding another round of bonuses on top of $42 million given out earlier this year even as laid-off workers are denied severance and Canadian retirees face threats to pensions.
“It’s part of a pattern across the business landscape that is increasingly baffling — not to mention infuriating — to the lowly worker,” the editorial said.
“For reasons only accountants and executives themselves seem to understand, outrageous incomes seem to have become the price of doing business (or bankruptcy) in recent decades. Former Nortel head John Roth, for example, hauled in $133 million in 2000 alone.”
