Shell’s works council says it is ‘outraged’ at the steep rise in bonuses paid to top management in 2008, reports news agency AFN on Friday.

The central works council (COR) wrote to Shell on Thursday saying this was unacceptable in a situation where ‘the agreed aims of the company have not been achieved’, says AFN.
Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer earned €8.8m last year, a 72% increase on his 2007 pay package.
The works council points out that only last week it agreed with Shell’s decision not to increase wages in 2009 because of the financial crisis. ‘Savings are being made throughout the company, jobs are being lost and the index link for Shell’s pensioners is up for discussion,’ says the works council.
A Shell spokesman says in Friday’s Financieele Dagblad that the pay of some 8,000 workers in the Netherlands who are not covered by a formal pay and conditions agreement will go up an average of 3% this year.
The paper says Shell has a workforce of 11,650 in the Netherlands, of whom 2,000 are covered by a formal pay deal (cao).