Greedy Grabbers 6

Only in Holland. Cops in Rotterdam are obliged to write out a minimum amount of tickets, otherwise they will receive a cut on their salary. (It has even been put in to contract.) The quota is set on 120 tickets per cop. The underlying motivation here is of course money. Holland has a reputation for creating 'milk-cows,' when you have to get a new passport or i.d. card or license plate (etc.), you're in for some financial setbacks because those don't come cheap. In fact, 'milk-cows' are created to generate income for the state and forcing police officers to write out tickets is just another extension of the same philosophy. Sickening, really.

Greedy Grabbers 5

German bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) allocated €25 million in bonuses to its executives even though in the year 2009 a negative balance of €2.2 billion was reached. HRE was in fact rescued with the help of the German government and €140 billion in taxpayer money. The board of directors however relied on some old company rules, and started handing out bonuses to itself.

Greedy Grabbers 4

Take a look at this mugshot. Well, it isn't really a mugshot but it could very well be. Meet director J. van Praet who got fired last February over a conflict with the company council. He headed an institution for the handicapped but got into conflict over an interest free loan, amounting up to €550.000. The board didn't like that. Just recently it became public knowledge (from the companies annual report) that the former director got off pretty well. He received a "golden handshake" worth 200K, a severance worth another 200K and another bonus worth 40K. I'm sure Mr. Praet is a happy man. Do you think he can explain why healthcare is getting more expensive each year?

Greedy Grabbers 3

Yes, if you follow the news on a regular basis you'll find something like this almost every week. It came to light in Holland that the heads of the police department in Amsterdam make a lot of money. Way more then the norm the government itself advised. That's called the 'Balkenendenorm' and is set at €188.000. The idea is that managers in the public sector don't make more then that. In practice no such thing happens.
Chief commissioner Welten, executive chief Gorissen and head administration Schonfeld make respectively €262.841, €212.292 and €200.331. The city of Amsterdam also pays a large amount for Weltens villa in the village of Warmond! To top it off the Amsterdam police department is in the process of making cuts. The workers union of the police was naturally infuriated when this news came out and commented that they were working hard to avoid lay offs under the current economic situation.
It's really scandalous. Lots of businesses, institutions or government sectors are in financial turmoil and not functioning properly yet when you put them through a looking glass you'll often if not always find some greedy grabber at the top. The people who actually do the work often get paid a minimum and have the most risk of being fired. And with government institutions, eventually it's the taxpayer who always gets the bill. Don't you just love capitalism?

Greedy Grabbers 2

Here we go again. The Admiral de Ruyter hospital in Holland is in financial turmoil. Turns out the CEO (Pieter Vierhout) makes €367.000 a year. His colleague Vos makes €384.000. This is almost twice than what the Dutch Prime Minster makes. Do these gentlemen realize that their institution's financial disposition is certainly also caused by their salaries? If they care is another matter of course. Most people have a mortgage in those figures, and spend 20-30 years paying it off. No wonder that healthcare is getting more expensive every year.

Greedy Grabbers

Read something in the newspaper today that really makes me fume. The sad thing is, this isn't an exception. Corine Houtzagers a former member of a board of directors of a healthcare company, received a bonus (upon ending of her contract) of €410.000. She was with the company 'WWZ-Marienstaete-Valent' for 4.5 years. A spokesperson remarked that this is the normal practice and that because she got laid off she was entitled to it. Other former employees of that company were sent home with €248.000 and €42.400.

This is totally outrageous. Normal employees who do all the work - providing care - get paid the minimum or close to it. Managers get paid well but as you can see get massive amounts of money, even when they do a poor job! The company made a loss of 6.6 million euros last year! Add the poor quality of healthcare the company provided and it becomes a total mystery to me why so much money has to be paid for misfits. It's almost criminal in my point of view. Lots of people complained about that company. They were told that due to shortages there weren't enough personnel and that cutbacks were in order. Well duh! All the money flowed in to the pockets of the managers.

Groping make me sick.