The boss of train company Avanti's parent company has been given a £1m share bonus in the week that his staff go out on strike. Alan Sutherland is the chief executive of FirstGroup which owns 70% Avanti West Coast - the rail company responsible for many services across north Wales including trains to London.
Avanti is warning passengers to "only travel if necessary" on Saturday, August 20 after strikes on August 18 caused mass disruption to the routes. The company has been running a reduced service for most of this week.
But on Thursday, the group's chief executive was given 972,590 shares which he will be able to cash in after five years, "subject to satisfaction of performance conditions and continued employment," the Mirror reports. As the share price for FirstGroup is £1.10, the shares are currently valued at just over £1m.
