UBS shareholders to decide management pay-press

ZURICH Nov 16 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Swiss banking giant UBS (UBSN.VX) will soon be given the opportunity to decide on management's pay, according to Swiss Sunday paper Sonntag.

UBS shareholders will be given a consultative vote on management pay structures and the bank will also reveal the introduction of a transparent bonus system in a press release on Monday, the report said.

Bankers' pay at Switzerland's top banks UBS and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) has been the subject of hot debate in the country and almost a thousand people took to the streets of Zurich on Saturday to protest against what they see as bankers' inflated salaries.

Last week, former UBS CEO Peter Wuffli said he would hand back 12 million Swiss francs ($10.08 million) in bonuses voluntarily and pressure is mounting on former UBS president Marcel Ospel to make a similar gesture.

In future UBS bonuses will be blocked for at least three years instead of being paid immediately, according to Sunday's press report.

If it becomes apparent in time that the company's profits were unsustainable or an individual's performance was only short-lived, the manager's pay could be cut, or even reduced to zero in extreme cases.

Pay will not be capped but the new system will make it practically impossible for UBS to pay out bonuses running to tens of millions while the company is losing money.

UBS has said it will report on manager pay at its extraordinary general meeting on November 27, called to approve the government's bailout package of the bank.

The package envisages a 6 billion franc capital injection from the Swiss government in return for a 9.3 percent stake UBS, which will also unload $60 billion of risky, mostly U.S., mortgage assets into a new fund controlled by the central bank.

(Reporting by Jason Rhodes; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)