EOH employees complain about low salary increases while executives score millions

EOH employees are complaining that they will not get their full bonuses in December and must accept meagre salary increases, while executives enjoy big salary increases and large bonuses.

Employees who contacted MyBroadband said they would only receive half their bonus in December. The other part will only be paid in April 2022.

They added that many employees had to settle for an annual salary increase as low as 1.5%, which is well below inflation.

What made some of the employees particularly angry was that some top managers allegedly enjoyed significant salary increases during the same period.

They highlighted that EOH CEO Stephen van Coller’s salary package increased by 26% over the last year — from R11.6 million in 2020 to R14.5 million in 2021.

The aggrieved employees feel Van Coller and other executives enjoy substantial pay packages and rapid salary growth at the expense of low-level employees.

Fatima Newman, group chief risk officer at EOH, told MyBroadband discretionary performance-based incentives will get paid in two tranches: December 2021 and April 2022.

Newman said the payment of bonuses was in line with what EOH implemented last year.

In terms of salary increases, EOH gave a 5% increase to employees in the R256,800 per annum and below salary bracket.

For the rest of the EOH employees, the company granted an overall average increase of 3%.

Newman said the salary increase percentage per person varied based on the employee and their specific Business Unit’s performance.

“Further to this, 96.5% of EOH employees received an increase,” she said.

Newman highlighted that incentives and salary increases are discretionary and based on market, business, and individual performance factors.

“Each individual’s percentage increase was aligned to EOH’s remuneration principles,” she said.

Now read: EOH CEO Stephen van Coller under attack