Disgruntled shareholders at Australian flag carrier Qantas have rejected the board’s remuneration report at the airline’s annual general meeting in Melbourne on Friday, with an 82.93% vote against the report.
The report had recommended that the disgraced former CEO Alan Joyce be awarded an AUD $21.4 million annual pay package, including $2.14 million in base pay for 2022/2023 and millions more in long-term incentive plan bonuses.
An attempt to calm the mood of investors by withholding a further $2.2 million in short-term bonuses and promising to claw back $8.3 million if the board of directors deems it necessary failed to appease shareholders, who ultimately rejected to report.
The rejection wasn’t, however, completely surprising, given that it was an easy target for frustrated investors who have seen the reputation of Australia’s much-loved national carrier nose dive in recent months.
The sacrificial departure of Joyce only partially restored some faith in the troubled brand, and there are now calls for Chairman Richard Goyder to go immediately.
Goyder says he’ll quit late next year, but his departure can’t come soon enough for shareholders and many employees who view the embattled chairman as emblematic of the corporate culture that caused Qantas’ problems in the first place.
In his opening remarks at the start of the AGM, Goyder once again apologised for the myriad problems that have marred Qantas in controversy over the last year, but he still made time to praise Joyce, saying that “tough decisions” had to be made.
One of those decisions – outsourcing 1,500 ground jobs – has been deemed illegal, although Goyder was keen to pass over that topic as quickly as possible on Friday.
