No bonus for Royal Mail’s bosses after dismal year

THE entire board of Royal Mail has been refused a bonus after a dismal year in which shares fell by more than 50pc.

Chief executive Rico Back – dubbed the Flying Postman because he commutes from Switzerland – will not get an annual bonus of up to £1.1m due to the terrible performance.

Back, who lives in a £2.3m penthouse in Zurich, faced outrage, after joining last June, over his £5.8m golden hello.

He still trousered £647,000 in salaries and workplace benefits over his first ten months despite losing out on bonus pay because he missed targets.

Orna Ni-Chionna, chairman of the remuneration committee, wrote in the annual report: ‘Shareholders were concerned that since the salary of the incoming chief executive was higher than that of the outgoing chief executive, this would lead to higher potential total pay.’

But she said that Royal Mail has reshuffled its remuneration policy so 75pc of bosses’ bonuses would depend on hitting financial targets. The policy will come into force if passed by shareholders next month.

Royal Mail was criticised for paying departing chief executive Moya Greene almost £1m in cash. And Ni-Chionna is leaving having been under fire for holding other boardroom jobs.

Ni-Chionna presided over one of the worst shareholder revolts in corporate history last year, when 70pc of investors rebelled over pay. Chairman Peter Long quit soon after.

Last October, the 503-year-old company issued a shock profit warning and said cost-cutting was slower than expected.

It only expects to save £100m this year, down from aims of £230m. But changes to executive pay might save some cash. Bosses could previously pocket a maximum 200pc of their salary in bonuses but this has now been lowered to 150pc.

Hitting target performance also used to win them twothirds of their maximum bonus, whereas now it will only get them half.