MTR management to face pay cuts over rail disruptions

The threat of pay cuts will hang over the MTR's senior management as a penalty for serious service disruptions, the transport minister announced yesterday - as it emerged that he had earlier tendered his resignation at the height of anger over revelations about a two-year delay in the construction of a high-speed railway to Guangzhou.

This month's offer to quit from Secretary for Transport and Housing Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung was rejected by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, a person familiar with the situation said.

Cheung said yesterday that the MTR Corporation would come down hard on future disruptions to train services by linking part of high-ranking employees' pay to serious incidents.

"The [MTR board] has … decided to include the occurrence of serious service disruptions as a consideration in the payment of performance-based remuneration to the corporation's senior management staff in future," he said.

The board members themselves are already subject to a performance factor in their pay.

Last year, HK$5 million of the HK$13 million MTR chief executive Jay Walder received was connected to his work performance.

Cheung did not specify how much service disruptions would affect wages, or who were considered "senior management". The government has fined the railway giant HK$40.5 million for disruptions in the last two years lasting more than 30 minutes. The money translates into a 10 per cent discount passengers get for every second trip made in a day, under an arrangement between the MTR and the government.