Just another side of the argument, without decent, experienced and happy, satisfied staff a company is nothing. There is a shortage of good people to employ at the moment and if you do not keep them happy then they will move elsehwhere for more money and better conditions. It then costs the company more having to find new staff and train them – this then puts other staff under pressure and results in a worse level of service for its customers. You want to retain staff and train them and invest in them and there is a price to pay which seems a lot but in the long term it actually saves you money. I have worked in companies with a large staff turnover and it is a nightmare and a false economy.
Having said all of that it is a very fine line regarding bonuses for staff working for charities and Motability Operations Ltd comes under the auspices of the Motability charity, which oversees it. I think it is for Motability to justify this amount and their reasoning behind it. Would staff have not been as happy if they where given a 10% bonus? The problem with bonuses is that they set a precendence and so if you pay 12.5% one year it is then expected to be at least 12.5% the next year, whereas if you have something set in stone, ie that there will be a 5-10% bonus depending on certain factors then I think that is reasonable.