A.I.G. Employees Fight for Right to Full Bonuses

Yesterday about 97% of the current employees at A.I.G. agreed to collectively accept a $20 million reduction in what was to have been a whopping $198 million bonus payout. Now it's just a modest $100 million, give or take a few mil. What heroes! But what about that other three percent who won't accept anything less than the fully gratuitous payout? And the 65 or so former employees who are demanding 100% of the promised bonuses—taxpayer and human decency be damned? Can Attorney General Cuomo get us their names and addresses and charter us a bus to Greenwich?

The latest compromise reached by A.I.G. and the Treasury comes in the wake of a huge uproar over some $165 million in bonuses that A.I.G.—which taxpayers bailed out to the tune of $182 billion—had paid execs last time. Less than half of the $45 million A.I.G. executives promised to give back has actually been returned, and as part of this "new deal" (ha), the amounts they forgo in this final bonus payout "will be considered a way of making good on their pledges," the Times reports. Current employees have agreed to a 10% cut in bonuses, and two-thirds of those 200 employees no longer with AIG must take 20 percent cuts.

So according to the Times, perhaps 65 former employees are demanding that A.I.G. pay them the full contractual "retention bonuses" promised in 2007—even though they lost their jobs at A.I.G. This final payout was due in mid-March, but that would happen sooner for those who accept the reduced bonus. As for those employees fighting for the full trough-ful, A.I.G. has told them that they will get no bonus at all. But that probably won't hold up in court, because A.I.G.’s own lawyers have previously issued an opinion that the contracts are binding.

Never mind, there's no reason for anybody to get excited—the Treasury’s "special master for compensation," Kenneth R. Feinberg says, "We believe this allows us to largely put the matter behind us." Yup, now finally the nation can turn to more pressing issues, like helping Nick Nolte find his bag in the trash.