EasyJet faces a potentially embarrassing row at next week’s annual general meeting following the continued spat over its former chief executive’s pay, which is set to see the airline’s founder Stelios Haji-Ioannu lead a revolt.
Shareholders will be asked to approve a £1 million payout to Andy Harrison, who left on June 30 last year to join Whitbread. The payment equals £750,000 in salary and a £250,000 bonus for the period from April 1 to September 30 – three months after Harrison left.
Haji-Ioannu is a major shareholder of the airline and is upset that he was not consulted over the package. He has pledged to vote against it at Thursday’s meeting at Luton airport.
In a letter to easyJet chairman Sir Michael Rake, Haji-Ioannu blamed Harrison for crew shortages last summer following an attempt to improve quarterly figures and claimed the easy brand had been damaged as a result:
“The lesson to be learnt here is that the remuneration of salaried employees should never be de-coupled from the actual financial performance of the company and it should not encourage short-term point scoring at the expense of long-term stability and financial results.”
The letter adds that Harrison pocketed a total of £2.6m for less than a year’s work plus 400,000 share options. Harrison has declined to comment, but has said his package was decided by the airline’s remuneration committee.