Yorkshire Water offers bonus to drought staff

Yorkshire Water, which wheeled out the standpipes last August complaining that no one could have forecast the summer's drought, is to pay cash bonuses to staff who worked to keep supplies flowing to customers.

The company has promised to give thank-you payments to employees who worked excessive hours to stop rota water cuts being introduced in the region.

Despite the fact that Ian Byatt, director-general of the water watchdog Ofwat, described the situation at Yorkshire Water as "not acceptable", the company refused to rule out the possibility that its much-criticised executives could also get extra cash. The privatised water company has yet to decide who will receive the payments and how much they will get. But it has confirmed that all 3,600 employees will be given an extra day off on 27 December, and that about pounds 20 per head will be made available to departmental heads to organise a "team event" as an extra reward.

"The drought this year was an exceptional, one-off event, and it's thanks to the very, very hard work and long exceptional hours put in by many people that Yorkshire people have not suffered cuts to their supply," a company spokesman said.

Many employees had cancelled holidays at short notice and their family lives were disrupted, he said, adding: "All of us get paid for coming to work, but if people are asked to put in extra effort this company as a good employer will reward them. Payments will be made where they are best deserved, and that could be at any level."

Peter Bowler, of the consumer group Yorkshire Waterwatch, said: "I think it's right that the people who did the hard work are rewarded for the effort they put in. But it's tragic that they were put under this stress because of management's failure to read the warning signs. Yorkshire Water needs to learn the lessons of this summer in more ways than one, and if senior managers and directors are rewarded for having failed to make the right decisions then customers will quite rightly demand a different board of directors."

An independent inquiry into the drought crisis, which left homes in Kirklees and Calderdale within weeks of rota water cuts last autumn, is expected to be convened shortly.