Network Rail bosses waive bonus Network Rail's chief executive, Sir David Higgins, said the decision to waive bonuses for six senior managers was made last week. Photograph: Ray Tang / Rex Features The head of Network Rail has become the latest taxpayer-funded executive to be forced to waive a bonus after his company announced that he and five fellow senior managers would not be seeking a payout this year. Sir David Higgins, the chief executive of the state-backed company, was one of six Network Rail bosses who were due to discuss a possible "incentive scheme" at an annual general meeting on Friday. Higgins was expected to collect a £340,000 bonus in addition to his £560,000 basic salary. The announcement on Monday followed immense pressure from Labour and ministers for executives in publicly owned companies to waive bonuses, following a public backlash over large payments made at a time of stringent government cuts. Justine Greening, the transport secretary, had taken the unprecedented step of saying she would attend the meeting to oppose the plans. She also planned to tackle the company's "corporate governance" by appointing a special director from the department. Labour had accused Greening of failing to use her powers to halt the bonuses altogether. In a statement released by Network Rail, Higgins said the decision to waive this year's bonuses was made last week and that the meeting had been suspended. Instead, future bonus schemes will be discussed at a meeting yet to be scheduled. The company could not say, however, if Higgins and fellow executives will continue to share in a long-term bonus scheme that could be worth up to £15.6m over the next three years for the rail group's six executive directors. This year's money will instead be diverted to a safety improvement fund for level crossings, Higgins said. I and my directors decided last week that we would forgo any entitlement and instead allocate the money to the safety improvement fund for level crossings. I can confirm that remains our intention," he said. The statement said that the board of Network Rail had decided to recommend to its members that Friday's meeting be adjourned. It will continue to consult the secretary of state on wider issues of governance in advance of the government's command paper," it reads. Network Rail's chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, said in the statement that Friday's meeting was not to approve a specific annual bonus payment for executive directors, but was supposed to amend a previously approved long-term incentive scheme to ensure additional external scrutiny of performance. The development comes a week after Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is 83% state-owned, waived a bonus package of almost £1m after a public backlash. The shadow transport secretary, Maria Eagle, said the government should sit down with Network Rail to agree whether a bonus scheme of this scale was appropriate in a company funded by the taxpayer. "At a time when so many families and rail commuters are being squeezed financially, when fares are rising by up to 13% and the rail network is performing inadequately, it was completely wrong for bonuses of this scale to have been even considered, let alone agreed," she said. She added the government had been out of touch with the public's desire to see greater fairness in executive pay and an end to the automatic bonus culture. It took Labour's intervention to force ministers to take this issue seriously. Justine Greening was still refusing to stand up for the British public and veto this proposed bonus plan when Network Rail managers took the decision for her," she said. Downing Street said ministers were not permitted to interfere in the "day-to-day running" of the firm, which receives £4bn of taxpayer funding a year and is guaranteed by the government. But it said it would be looking at its corporate governance in the light of "problems" that had arisen. Industry sources have accused politicians of using the issue of bonuses as a political football. It is ridiculous. We are at risk of losing some our best brains because of a political witchhunt," the source said.