Diary

The world's best boss?

By Attracta Mooney

Employees at one Australian business recently got a welcome surprise, after the family behind bus company Grenda Corporation decided to reward workers with an AUS$15 million (€12.2 million) gift.

The company, controlled by the Grenda family, sold off its transit operations last year, netting a cool AUS$400 million.

But rather than banking it all for themselves, patriarch Ken Grenda, along with his sons Geoff and Scott, decided to share a chunk of the profits with employees as a thank you for all their hard work.

“A business is only as good as its people, and our people are fantastic," he said. "This is to recognise that. We have had people here who are second generation, and one fellow in the same job for 52 years.”

Some employees were so surprised when they saw their bank accounts that they rang their bank, thinking there was an error.

The gesture has been widely welcomed by the family business's staff. One worker told Australian newspaper Herald Sun: "Good bosses are hard to find and Ken was a very good boss, one of a kind."

Anyone who had worked at the company for three months or more received a bonus of between about AUS$800 and AUS$30,000 before tax depending on the length of service and their position.

It’s a far cry from the situation at Royal Bank of Scotland, majority owned by the British taxpayer, where chief executive Stephen Hester turned down his £1 million (€1.2 million) bonus in January after public uproar. But it’s unlikely that anyone will be asking workers at Grenda to return their recent windfalls. 

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