WORKERS at British Aerospace are to get a say on how much their bosses are paid.

A new initiative at the defence company, which employs 12,000 in Lancashire, will see staff polled on the popularity of managers.

Results will be directly linked to directors' and managers' annual bonuses.

Executive directors will see about five per cent of their bonus calculated on the survey and the proportion will be slightly less for junior managers.

The scheme is disclosed in a new book, Vertical Take-Off, co-written by BAe's chairman Sir Richard Evans.

It says: "There is no better way to encourage behaviour that is conducive to communications, leadership, mentoring ... than to put a carrot in front of the executive's nose."

Workers will be asked how much their bosses display these characteristics.

The scheme could change Sir Richard's pay by almost £10,000 a year, based on his 1997 bonus of £190,000.

In the same year other executive directors received bonuses of between £110,000 and £125,000.

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