Sure, the bonuses were for 2019 performance, however, money is money. If they org doesn’t have enough to pay workers then the execs have done a lousy job and shouldn’t be paid bonuses. Obviously, their 2019 performance has led to shortfalls in 2020. They shouldn’t be rewarded for failure of a long range plan. In other words, “You’ll get your 2019 bonus but not if at the time of payment the finances are in bad shape.”
The execs will get hit on their 2020 bonuses (payout April 2021) and bonuses should be ZERO then.
You can’t really retroactively penalize people or change their 2019 goals after the fact. “Oops, we really meant to write a goal for you in January 2019 that you will be prepared for a major pandemic.” Good luck ever recruiting in the future if you do that. I expect there are legally binding performance contracts that spell out the bonus structure. They would are open to huge lawsuits if they changed goals or payouts after-the-fact.
That said, the right thing to do would have been to defer paying out the bonuses. Or perhaps get HR to work with the executive staff and get everybody to agree to voluntary reductions of 50%. Something could have been worked out with the e-staff and line staff.
Nonclinical administrators are the mother of all evil in healthcare. They do not understand patient care although will try to convince you they do. They make decisions that make no sense from a clinical standpoint and likely being far more harm than good.
I can say this having been a C Suite executive and seen it from the inside as a chief medical officer.
The problem is we abdicated our profession when outrageous financial regulations were imposed on us by lawyers who have also ruined our healthcare system.