It's glaringly apparent that the workforce is strung along.
Leadership is saying all sorts of things like "merit review", "merit increases", "financial compensation", "share plans", etc. while their actions show that they do not want to do any of that due to the fact this is a company owned by shareholders. At the end of the day, shareholders want to see money. Telling the workforce they won't do any sort of financial compensation will massively hurt quarterly/annual financials (it already did), and doing financial compensation will mean less money for shareholders and putting the leadership's jobs at risk for not meeting financial targets (already missed consistently). It's a conundrum.
What baffles me about this management team is they choose the third option of doing neither and take advantage of people's trust or kindness by handing out a potential "maybe" in the hopes they'll reach the end of a financial quarter unscathed. It's this short-sightedness that hurts everyone, including themselves, in the long run.
Look at the route they're taking right now. They're announcing a merit review in September. Reviewing it in October. Then 'putting it in the system' in November. Finally to 'pay out' in December. This time span equals an entire financial quarter and you don't even know for sure if you'll get a merit increase.
This is the equivalent of an abusive relationship and you're at the receiving end of it. Simple as.