Qantas has just released its annual report for 2023, revealing that recently resigned CEO Alan Joyce was paid $21.4 million for the 12 months to 30 June.
His base pay of $2.145 million was topped up with a $1.45 million short term cash bonus and about $8 million in shares. The report notes that last month Joyce elected to convert previously acccumulated rights to shares, which contributed a further $6.45 million to his payments.
Following the CEO’s resignation two weeks ago, the Qantas report notes that Joyce’s final short term incentive payment (STIP) “has not been finalised at this stage” as the Board has determined to delay its decision as to whether to approve the vesting of the STIP until it has further information available.
The airline noted that the release of the report “comes at a time when the company is experiencing an acute loss of trust from the community, and accumulated disappointment from customers, which the Board and Management are determined to fix”.
The Qantas Board said it had applied its discretion to cut short-term incentives for senior executives for FY23 by 20% in recognition of the “customer and brand damage of cumulative events” and is also withholding the balance of incentives while the ACCC probe into alleged selling of already cancelled flights progresses.
“There are already clawback provisions on significant amounts of remuneration awarded but not yet released that would be used if significant misconduct was ultimately found,” Qantas said, noting that in the case of Alan Joyce $2.2 million in short term bonuses has been withheld so far, while a further $8.3 million is subject to recovery if the Board considers it necessary.
