Bailed-out TUI’s bosses refuse to accept a pay cut
BOSSES at travel giant TUI have refused to take a pay cut despite furloughing 11,000 UK staff and pocketing a £1.6 billion bailout from the German government.
In an astonishing statement, TUI claimed its executive board is ‘also making its financial contribution in the crisis’, even though they are not giving up any pay or perks.
The Anglo-German company said because financial targets are unlikely to be met due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was unlikely there would be any bonuses this year for executives.
But that has not stopped other bosses in the travel sector taking pay cuts in line with their UK staff, who will receive just 80 per cent of their salaries via the Government’s furlough scheme.
Executives at British Airways owner IAG, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic and Heathrow Airport have all taken pay cuts as airports have been shut and holidays cancelled. TUI’s top brass – led by chief executive Fritz Joussen – also failed to hit bonus targets in 2019 after the grounding of Boeing 737 Max jets, but still received large payouts including their pensions.
With their salary, pension and other perks, it is still possible they could make more money than last year when Joussen pocketed £1.57 million.
David Burling, TUI’s chief executive of markets and airlines, made £820,000; finance chief Birgit Conix took home £816,000; Sebastian Ebel, who runs TUI’s resorts and cruises, made £866,000; HR director Elke Eller, £962,000; and IT director Frank Rosenberger, £969,000.
If they had hit bonus targets, they could have received much more. In 2018, Joussen was paid £5.3 million and all the others made more than £1million, except Conix who had only recently joined.
A spokesman said: ‘TUI’s executive board is also making its financial contribution in the crisis.
‘The variable remuneration [bonuses], which is targeted at 60 to 70 per cent of total remuneration, is geared to ambitious and challenging financial, operational and strategic objectives. Due to the economic impact of the corona crisis, we expect that the variable remuneration for the current financial year will be fully omitted.’
Last week, TUI secured a £1.6 billion bridging loan from state-owned German bank KfW to help it cope with the pandemic.
This was conditional on TUI temporarily laying off most UK staff and finding extra savings.
TUI was relegated from the FTSE 100 last month after its shares plunged in the wake of the crisis.