With all this talk of MP’s and the like baying for blood and demanding that Stephen Hester and other employees from RBS not be given a bonus and that their pay be cut, I am starting to get a bit worried. If I’m not mistaken he did not create the mess, his expertise was brought in to sort it out!

Let me explain! In my world, a contract is a contract, a deal is a deal, its really all you have as an employee. When you start in a role, you accept the terms of that contract in good faith and it is widely accepted that those terms will continue until either party tells the other that the deal is off , one party (the employee) does not perform adequately, then both parties part company. We are all agreed on that!

It is also widely accepted that if an employer does not want to adhere to the terms of the contract and the new terms are less favourable, and the employee has carried out their part of the deal i.e. performed adequately, then an agreement (usually financial) is reached and a parting of the ways occurs! All with me so far!

So, you may be forgiven for sharing my concern that MP’s (who lets face it would loudly shout and scream if it were them, remember the expenses scandal) and certain members of the press now think its completely acceptable to demand that employees ignore perfectly legally binding agreements i.e their contracts, and forgo their agreed packages just because its a large one (forgive the pun)! That is a very dangerous precedent to set and it will not stop there, many other employers will use it as an excuse to behave in a similar manner and that is not good for employees not good at all. MP’s seem to forget that we as taxpayers pay their wages too, we are their employers just like we are Stephen Hesters! I am happy with his performance, he is doing a very good job by all accounts, I am not very happy with theirs but there is little I can do about it for a few years yet!

If it becomes acceptable for organisations to welch on a deal just like that, no employee is safe at all! Tinker with contracts and negate their value at your peril! Trust and a deal in writing is the only thing employees and indeed employers have left. Knowing that the terms of a contract can be wiped out by applying moral presssure is a dangerous precedent!

Good talent is hard to attract, its even harder to attract when the company is on its knees and needs all the expertise it can get to get it up and running again. What effect do you think forcing Mr Hester and his colleagues to sacrifice their contractual rights is having on them this morning, what is that doing to their morale at the very time their expertise is needed most.

If I were the guys at RBS I would be ringing headhunters right now (or even lawyers) and disappear into corporate heaven to be left alone to get on with my job and be paid exactly what it said on the tin when I signed my contract! and guess who will suffer when that happens …………yes you guessed it……..the unfortunate tax payers…ergo you and I!