Adif, the railway infrastructure manager at the center of the target for two high-speed tragedies that have led to the death of 115 people in the last nine months, has indicated this morning that the incentive plan that it has assured for the next four years for its managers (2026-2030) was already included in previous periods and is extended to a third of the workforce.
In the period 2021 to 2025, the fulfillment of objectives recognized by Adif to its management when applying the bonuses ranged between 98.4% and 100%, according to the economic report of the agreement signed by the company last Wednesday. It is a proportion that draws attention precisely because of the negative evolution that the system has experienced. For those years 2024 and 2025 in which 100% of the objectives were met, the ministry itself had already dismissed a president of Adif and admitted the deterioration of the image of high speed.
"On the agenda of the Boards of Directors on November 4, the only point was the approval of the agreements to comply with the provisions of the Railway Sector Law and guarantee the sustainability of the railway infrastructures for the following temporary period," Adif said in a statement in which it ensures that "it has not approved a 'bonus' for the company", as reported by EL MUNDO last Saturday.
On November 4, one day after the resignation of Minister Óscar Puente in the Congress of Deputies, the president of Adif, Pedro Marco de la Peña, chaired the boards of Adif and Adif AV. His position was in question since Adamuz (46 deaths) last January, and Urda, just a week before, with 69 fatalities. In that council, Marco de la Peña signed the agreement with the Ministry of Finance for Adif and Adif AV hours before going to the Ministry of Economy to explain the Urda accident, the railway crisis unleashed by the lack of confidence in the company, and to present his resignation to Carlos Body, the new Minister of Transport. Body accepted it.
The signed agreement includes in its fifth clause incentives for Adif management if they meet the objectives. Textually, it says: "To encourage and promote compliance with the objectives of the Agreement, ADIF-Alta Velocity will implement, in a coordinated manner with the criteria adopted for the rest of the entities dependent on the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, a Management Incentive Plan, which will continue the one implemented for the period 2021 - 2025, through the previous Agreement. Like the previous Plan, this Plan will link the variable remuneration of the management to the objectives of operating results, investment and other service provision objectives defined in this Agreement".
The company assures that the only purpose of the meeting of the administrative body was to approve the agreement with the Treasury. It also says that the bonuses - formally incentives - for a system of objectives affect the annual remuneration of senior management, the management structure, the support structure, as well as the group of middle managers and managers. "In total, 5,216 people," he states, without specifying the amounts charged or distribution based on responsibilities.
Operators' criticism of incentives
In any case, the objective bonuses in Adif's current situation have been criticized by the railway operators, who raised allegations in the draft of the agreement that was going to be signed and which included them. For Renfe, for example, it is difficult to understand the "general worsening of the service provision indicators and objectives" that have been approved. Iryo, for its part, stated that the "fifth clause is limited to a Management Incentive Plan that links variable remuneration to results, investment, debt and service delivery objectives", without including criteria such as user satisfaction.
