The Australian airline, Qantas, has cut the pay-out heading to its former CEO by more than 40%.
Alan Joyce has now left the company after 15 years as Chief Executive. He was at the helm during a series of PR disasters, including a High Court fight for sacking 1700 staff during the Pandemic and a legal fight over the accusation that the airline sold tickets for flights that had already been cancelled.
“The events that damaged Qantas and its reputation and caused considerable harm to relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders were due to a number of factors,” the airline said in a note to investors announcing the findings of an internal review. It added: “While there were no findings of deliberate wrongdoing, the review found that mistakes were made by the board and management".
The report also directly attacked the "command and control" leadership style, says Reuters. "There was too much deference to a long-tenured CEO who had endured and overcome multiple past operational and financial crises," said the report by McKinsey & Co senior adviser Tom Saar. It adds: "This contributed to a top-down culture, which impacted empowerment and a willingness to challenge ... decisions of concern. That cultural characteristic underpinned some of the events that affected the group's reputation."
Joyce, who left his role two months earlier than planned, “…was due to receive A$21.4m ($14m; £11m) after leaving the firm last year but the package will now be cut by A$9.26m,” reports BBC News. The report nodded disapprovingly to his decision sell A$17 million of Qantas shares in June 2023, which was just a few months before his scheduled retirement.
Joyce is not alone though in being hit with a financial punishment. Qantas is also going to slash by a 30% the “short-term incentives” of some of its current and former senior executives.
Joyce has been replaced by Vanessa Hudson who is the first female CEO in the company’s history.
