Ryanair braced for pay rebellion over £424,000 bonus for chief executive Michael O’Leary
Ryanair is braced for a pay rebellion this week over a €458,000 (£424,000) bonus for chief executive Michael O’Leary.
Shareholder advisory group ISS said it was ‘difficult to justify’ the payout because Ryanair has used taxpayers’ money to furlough staff and has accessed a £600million loan from the Bank of England.
O’Leary’s cash bonus was around 92 per cent of the maximum he could have received and took his total remuneration for the year to March to €3.5million – including €2.5million under a long-term incentive plan.
‘Difficult to justify’: Michael O’Leary’s cash bonus was around 92 per cent of the maximum he could have received
His basic salary was halved to €250,000 from April, but ISS said the pay cut was ‘expected practice’ for companies receiving taxpayer support.
It said there had been ‘ample opportunity’ to reduce O’Leary’s bonus ‘in light of the obvious looming challenges facing the company’.
Ryanair made a €185million loss for the three months to June. Pilots and cabin crew have reduced the 3,000 job losses initially threatened by accepting pay cuts of up to 20 per cent.
ISS is advising investors to vote against the non-binding pay report at Thursday’s annual shareholder meeting.
It said: ‘Given the current state of upheaval in the industry and the uncertain outlook, it is difficult to justify a payment equal to around 92 per cent of maximum opportunity to the chief executive, regardless of performance.’
Last year, almost 50 per cent of Ryanair shareholders voted against the pay report.