Bloomberg has reported that senior managers who work for UBS in Switzerland, who have apparently got used to some fairly decent perks, are going to lose them as new CEO Oswald Gruebel slashes costs.

Although Gruebel is looking to rein in costs across the group, it's Swiss managers who will take it mostly on the chin, as the bank is to stop subsidizing gym membership, and train season tickets for families will no longer be reimbursed. Car-leasing benefits will also be discontinued. Employees are also thought likely to lose their current right to get cash or shares in lieu of taking their full annual holiday entitlement.

Gruebel said: 'UBS has always been a generous employer, and many staff benefits were above market and industry norms. I think it is right for a flourishing company to use such benefits as a way of enabling employees to share in its success. Under current circumstances, however, I have to ask employees for their understanding and support with regard to this decision'.

Finally, a shareholder arrived at this week's UBS annual general meeting with a red book. Although some thought that it was a Bible (and that the shareholder was planning to ask the board to join him in a prayer for a quick recovery), it turned out to be a copy of Grimms Fairy Tales. How apt.

Last year, shareholder Rudolf Weber rocked up with a string of sausages, which he offered to then Chairman Marcel Ospel (Weber was concerned that, despite all the money that Ospel had received from the bank over the years, he wouldn't have enough to spend on food when he stepped down). Ospel strangely responded by waving around a tube of mustard (probably taken from the subsidized staff canteen). Must be a Swiss thing........

Reader Comment

'The Weber and Ospel exchange was actually a play on words. 'It is a sausage to me' literally translates from Swiss German to mean 'I don't care (or in this case, 'you don't care about your small shareholders'). 'I am adding my mustard' means 'I will still comment (even though you may not expect me too)'.

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