Now bosses ‘must feel the pinch’ on pay

...but some ARE doing the right thing

TIME TO END FAT CAT PAY

PRESSURE is mounting on firms to slash executive pay, with a leading fund manager saying bosses must ‘feel the pinch’ along with their workers.

Several major firms have already announced pay cuts at the top, including British Airways owner IAG, engineer RollsRoyce and housebuilder Persimmon.

And BT announced that boss Philip Jansen ( pictured below) would give his £1.1m salary to the NHS for six months. ITV boss Carolyn McCall, meanwhile, is among directors at the broadcaster to take a pay cut, with her £923,000 salary to be reduced by 20pc.

She has been separately awarded 4.3m shares, worth about £2.5m at yesterday’s price, which will vest between 2023 and 2025 based on whether she hits performance targets.

But campaigners say others, from Britain’s biggest banks to cinema group Cineworld, are yet to follow suit – even though they have slashed the dividend or put staff on reduced pay in the face of the crisis.

The issue has been highlighted by the Mail’s Time To End Fat Cat Pay campaign, launched as the pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy.

Richard Buxton, head of UK equities at asset manager Merian Global Investors, issued a warning to businesses which did not cut executive payouts during the turmoil.

He said: ‘It is essential that we are all in this together, which involves executives feeling the pinch as much as the general population. We will give short shrift to pleas that managements’ experiences should be any different from those of their workforces and from those of our clients, whose savings have come under significant pressure.’ Britain’s banks were ordered by the Bank of England to cancel dividend payments last week. The Bank also made it clear that it does not expect lenders to pay any cash bonuses to its top executives this year. But the banks have refused to say what they will do.

Cineworld has been singled out by campaigners after hundreds of staff were furloughed under the Government’s jobs retention scheme. It had planned to lay them off before the scheme was announced in March, after social distancing rules made it unable to keep its cinemas open.

But despite the moves to slash costs, boss Mooky Greidinger, who was paid £2.7m last year, has yet to take a pay cut himself. Campaigners

at Cineworld Action Group said: ‘While we struggle to afford essentials, our chief executive makes £2.7m a year entirely on our labour.’

A spokesman for Cineworld declined to comment.

Separately, bosses at Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct have had their salaries cut to just £40,000. Ashley does not take a salary.

Luke Hildyard, director of thinktank the High Pay Centre, said: ‘It would be contemptible for any company to persist with vast executive pay awards while laying off staff or taking money from the Government.’