Quality control | Boeing overhauls employee bonuses in bid to fix serial safety issues

Boeing has announced overhauls to its employee bonus plan, with safety and quality metrics now accounting for 60% of payouts to non-unionized executives, managers, and employees.

The new annual incentive plans are a proposed solution to serial safety concerns at Boeing that have been uncovered after the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout incident in January and from a recent investigation from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following two fatal 737 crashes in 2018 and 2019.

The changes apply to employees in the Boeing Commercial Airlines (BCA) unit, where safety and quality will now be valued more heavily than meeting financial objectives.

Previously in the BCA, financial targets accounted for 75% of the annual bonus, with operational objectives including quality and safety metrics only accounting for 25% of the reward.